
Class _LAi^ 
Book_ 



SCHOOLS 
AT HOME AND ABROAD 



SCHOOLS 
AT HOME AND ABROAD 



BY 

R. E. HUGHES, 

M.A. (Oxon) B.Sc. [Lond] 



NEW YORK: 

E. P. BUTTON & CO. 

London : Swan Sonnenschien & Co., Lim. 

1902 



Zo QU^ (^ife 



SOME BOOKS REFERRED TO 
IN THE TEXT. 



"Dickens as an Educator," by Jas. L. Hughes (Arnold). 

" Essentials of Method," by C. De Garmo (Isbister). 

" Rapport sur I'enseignement professionnel en Angleterre," par 

Oscar Pyfferoen (Bruxelles). 
"A quoi tient le superiorite des Anglo-Saxons," by E. Demolins 

(Firmin-Didot et Cie). 
" Methods of Teaching in America," by Alice Zimmern (Sonnen- 

schein). 
" Teaching in Three Continents," by W. Catton Grasby (Cassell). 
"Some Impressionsof American Education," byD. Salmon (Grififiths, 

Swansea). 
" The Public School System of the United States," by J. M. Rice 

(The Century Co). 

"General Method," \^ by C. A. McMurry (Bloom- 

" The Method of the Recitation," f ington, 111). 

" Introduction to Herbartian Principles of Teaching," by C. I. Dodd 

(Sonnenschein). 
" Herbart and the Herbartians," by C. De Garmo (Scribner). 
" Introduction to the Pedagogy of Herbart," C. Ufer (Heath). 
"Apperception," by Dr. Karl Lange (Heath). 
"The Teaching of Geography," by A. Geikie (Macmillan). 
" Outlines of Pedagogics," by Prof. W. Rein, translated by C. C. 

and Ida J. Van Liew (Sonnenschein). 



PREFACE 

7'hese essays and addresses on educational topics 
have been prepared at various times, and for varying 
audiences. 

Several of them were prepared for gatherings of 
primary teachers, others for gatherings of parents and 
persons interested in education. Some repetition and 
apparent diversity seem almost inevitable in a collection 
of essays written under these circumstances. Yet the 
writer thinks that, beneath this repetition and diversity, 
the essential unity of attitude, so to speak, is preserved. 

There will be noticed too in the text local references, 
but the reader will see that the argument demands such 
local " point," and he will be able to vary the reference 
to suit the environment. 

The purpose of the writer is not an ambitious one. 
He makes no claim to originality in any respect. His 
aim throughout has been to make available to teachers 
and others interested in education, the valuable mass of 
material that, in the form of educational statistics and 
reports, has been collected both by Government offices 
and by private individuals. 

Were a list of the many writers consulted added, it 
would seem pedantic ; and, as the author claims no 
originality for him.self, it is hoped that the omission of 
such a list will be excused. 

In the study of systems of National Education, the 
endeavour has been to bring to bear upon educational 



viif. PREFACE 

statistics and reports, those principles of scientific 
evaluation, which would be applied in such a study as 
Comparative Anatomy. 

If the writer has been able, in some respect, to get at 
the essential significance of educational statistics he is 
more than satisfied. 

Like all writers in these fields of educational activity 
he feels under a special debt of obligation to the Annual 
Reports of the Commissioner of Education, Washington, 
U.S.A., and to the Special Reports issued by the Board 
of Education, London. 

The writer is particularly indebted to his friend, 
Principal Salmon, not only for reading the proofs but 
for much valuable counsel. He also wishes to thank 
Miss Michell, of St. Helen's School, and Sister Elizabeth, 
of St. Joseph's School, Swansea, for the addenda to the 
chapter on " The Kindergarten, at Home and Abroad,'' 
and finally his thanks are due to Mr. W. Williams, B.Sc, 
and Mr. H. T. Evans, B.A., for revising the proofs. 

He also wishes to express his obligations to the 
editors of " The Comtemporary Review," " The Journal 
of Education," " Child Life," and " Young Wales," for 
permission to reproduce certain of these articles that 
have already appeared in those magazines. 

Swansea, 
November^ 1901. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter 

I. The Half-Way House : a Study in Comparative 



Education 

2. The English School and its German Rival - 

3. Two Country Schools 

4. The Fundamentals of Training 

5. The Curriculum of the Primary School 

6. The Teaching of Geography .... 

7. The Pessimist in Education . - - - 

8. The Village School 

9. The Aim of the Secondary School - 

ID, Wanted : A Modern School .... 

11. Commercial Education on the Continent 

12. A German Commercial School .... 

13. The French Baccalaureat .... 

14. The Kindergarten at Home and Abroai) 

15. Characteristics of Childhood .... 

16. The Old and the New Education - 



Page 

I 

52 

78 

94 

106 

133 

148 
181 
194 
202 
210 
228 
240 

257 
308 
330 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 

A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE EDUCATION 

That the amount of trained intellect, of skilled brain- 
power which a nation possesses is the only true measure 
of its power is beginning to be accepted. 

Natural resources and hereditary aptitude will for a 
time compensate for a lack of this, but the danger is the 
more insidious flattering as it does national vanity and 
deluding into a false security. The commercial great- 
ness of Germany to-day differs in this respect from that 
of America that it has been attained in a great measure 
despite natural obstacles. Our own commercial power 
like that of America is mainly due to natural resources 
and national aptitude. It is fortunate for us that a 
national characteristic, namely self-depreciation is cry- 
ing aloud in pessimistic tones, and warning us of the 
dangerously false position we are in. It is not technical 
nor commercial education that we need as much as a 
better and more comprehensive scheme of national train- 
ing. More skilled intellects prepared to take up this 
problem and that problem, not so much because a train- 
ing in the solution of similar problems has been received 
but because the intellect has been trained to attack 
scientifically all problems. 

I 



10 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND AISROAD 

The foundation stone of every system of national 
training is the school of the people, the primary school. 
Two nations by their commercial competition have been 
forcing the above truths home to us, and it is with the 
hope of learning other lessons from our rivals that this 
paper is written. It is not in any sense a comprehensive 
comparison, but rather a series of impressions gathered 
from many sources and placed in juxtaposition here. 

In Germany to-day the " caste " feeling is acute, in 
England it is less so, in America it has, as a political 
force, disappeared. In Germany the Volksschule is, 
generally speaking, for one class only, the labouring 
class; in England the elementary school though origin- 
ally designed for the poor is open to all, but utilised 
mainly by the labouring and lower middle classes; in 
America the common school is in theory for all classes, 
and in practice is largely attended by all classes.* 

In Germany primary education is partially free, in 
England entirely free, whilst in America not only is 
primary education free, but to a considerable extent 
secondary and academic are also free. 

Lastly, private schools have almost entirely dis- 
appeared in Germany : as a matter of fact there are 404 
private elementary schools in Prussia; in England as 
competitors of the elementary school they are moribund ; 
in America they are flourishing. 

German education though not so minutely organised 
as, say French education, is intensely bureaucratic. 
The State, through its officers trains, appoints, and 

* "The elemenlaiy school should be made as strong as possible, for it is 
the greatest leveller in our society. There is no democracy like that of the 
common sciiool. Here friendships cross all social lines and make new 
combinations. The greatest equalizing force which is to-day at work in 
American society is the common school." (Supt. Murray of Colorado). 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE II 

pensions teachers, compels effectively every parent to 
send his child to school, prescribes the books to be used, 
sometimes proscribes methods, leaves to the locality but 
little of initiative or control, but to its servant the teacher 
secures a sound status and considerable freedom of 
method in carrying out a prescribed curriculum. 

In the United States on the other hand the doctrine 
of individualism has been carried to its logical con- 
clusion. The Federal Government has practically no 
control over the education of its future citizens. The 
sole function of the Federal Government is the annual 
publication of valuable reports, and the collection and 
publication of statistics which, owing to their voluntary 
nature, are incomplete. 

Each state is a law unto itself in matters educational, 
and within each state every variety of educational effi- 
ciency may be found. Here teachers are licensed to 
teach for one, there for three years; this town employs 
only " trained " teachers, that one employs the cheapest 
it can get (for example more than half the teachers in 
the State of Utah have received only an elementary 
school education). This city has at the head of its 
educational administration a pedagogue of international 
reputation, that one boasts of a gentleman who fills up 
the interstices of a busy life by " bossing " the schools. 
Beside some of the finest schools in the world are some 
of the poorest. There is an extraordinary variation in 
efficiency of American schools, less perhaps of English, 
and certainly still less of German schools. Public 
interest in education is much keener in Germany and 
America than in England. In America all classes are 
interested in education, in Germany the learned classes, 
in England — well, no class. It is no uncommon thing 
for audiences of a thousand or more to attend a course 



12 SCITOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

of lectures or a conference on educational topics in 
America. 

People of wealth and social position often attend 
university lectures in Pedagogy. It is a significant fact 
that America and Germany have each over 250 educa- 
tional periodicals, whereas I doubt if we support one 
tenth of that number at home. Again, some of the most 
interesting and pregnant work of the day is being 
worked out in Amei-ican schools and colleges. Child 
study, the rational basis of any system of training, is 
gradually being monopolised by Americans, and in 
other directions American thought is leading the 
educational world. 

That she means business is shown by the royal bounty 
of her wealthy sons, who, as a free-will offering to the 
good cause gave in one year, 1899, fourteen million 
pounds sterling for the better education of Columbia's 
children and young people. Even the gravest defects 
of American education, such as irregular attendance, 
etc., may have their compensation. In time, doubtless, 
the parent will voluntarily see the folly and extrava- 
gance of thwarting the training of his child, and such a 
time it may be said is worth waiting for. Germany 
with her magnificent system of school attendance has 
still to deplore the rapid rate at which so many of her 
children degenerate after leaving school into all the 
indifference of an uneducated class, whereas America 
can boast that despite their meagre equipment her 
children leave school with a keen desire for more edu- 
cation, which by means of newspapers, lectures, and 
courses, they are generally able to gratify. 

In America every career is open to the enterprising 
youth, in Germany it is generally fixed for him when 
he is nine years old. The educational ladder is practi- 



THE IIALF-WAV HOUSE , I3 

cally complete in America, in Germany it is almost 
unknown and until recently, undesired. 

The German Kindergarten for children under six 
years of age is not encouraged by the state and receives 
no public assistance whatsoever. The German govern- 
ment evidently considers that a child should not attend 
school until he is six years old. Indeed, the vast 
majority of German children never do. It is only 
in a few of the larger cities that the Kindergarten is 
found. The State does not permit the Kindergarten to 
teach any of the subjects of the elementary school 
curriculum, and looks upon them merely as places where 
children are looked after. The fact that no certificate is 
required by the State to teach in a German Kindergarten, 
although required of family tutors and governesses, is 
significant of the attitude of the State. It would seem 
as if it had never recovered from its first suspicion of the 
Kindergarten as a godless institution. 

Some of the finest Kindergartens in the world are to 
be found in America, The principles of Froebel and 
Herbart found a congenial soil in America. American 
ideas on education have been largely taken from Germany, 
but American ideals are of home manufacture, and the 
pedagogic world is the richer for it. Moreover, there is 
an admirable independence in the world of American 
pedagogy, so that though Froebel and Herbart are the 
sources, they are by no means the autocrats of the best 
American teaching. It is interesting to observe that 
the average German teacher, primary and secondary, 
has no superfluity of respect for the apostle of self- 
activity. The German secondary school teacher has 
sympathies more akin to those of the English public 
schoolmaster than to those of the American pedagogue. 

The beginning of the American Kindergarten was 



14 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

due to the efforts of private individuals such as Miss 
Blow and Mrs. Quincy Shaw, and it was only after many 
years' successful work that these schools were taken over 
and extended by the local school boards. Many of 
these American Kindergartens are well built and nicely 
furnished. As in the German Kindergarten everything 
is done to make the place homelike and pleasant. The 
pictures on the walls are constantly changed according 
to the season. A piano is always provided. Each 
child has a small wicker chair for himself, and the 
children are gathered, about ten in number, around a 
table just as they are in the German Kindergarten. In 
St. Louis only two children sit at each table. Each 
group of ten is a class, and there may be two of these 
in a room. The American Kindergartens are gener- 
ally open for three hours daily, in the morning only. 
The training of these city Kindergartens is admirable, 
but the pity of it is there are so few of them. There 
are practically none outside the larger towns. Indeed 
there are only 4,363 Kindergartens in the States ; these 
employ 8,937 teachers, and have 189,604 pupils out of a 
total school population of fifteen million. England 
with a school population of five and a half million has 
two million children attending the infants' schools. 

The Kindergarten as understood by Froebel and 
found in America and Germany is rare in England. 
There are signs of a considerable revolution taking place 
in the curriculum and methods of the English infants' 
schools, but whether these will, or can, ever develop into 
real Kindergartens is a moot point. The English infant 
school hitherto both in its methods and its architecture 
has been modelled closely upon the pattern of the ele- 
mentary school. 

Playrooms are rarely provided. It would seem no 



THE HALl'-WAV HOUSE I5 

greater expense to build an alternating set of classrooms 
and playrooms as is done in Antwerp, so that whilst one 
half the children occupies the class-rooms the other half 
occupies the play-rooms. 

The English class is invariably too large, and the train- 
ing of the teacher in the principles of the Kindergarten 
too fragmentary for the real Kindergarten to flourish 
here, at present. The fact is the Kindergarten is a most 
expensive system of training which only wealth}* bodies 
can undertake. Dr. Harris was able at St Louis to 
reduce the cost of the Kindergarten to a reasonable sum* 
by utilising the gratuitous services of people anxious to 
make themselves practically acquainted with the details 
of the Kindergarten system. 

Although English infant schools based on the prin- 
ciples of the Kindergarten are few, yet everything points 
to an increase. There is a divine unrest apparent ; the 
spirit is moving on the waters. We have as a people 
recognised that these most impressionable and acquisitive 
years of childhood should be utilised for training. We 
alone of the three nations have provided a system of 
training which, if not pedagogically perfect, is at least 
comprehensive. 

But it is in the primary schools — the people's schools 
that nations are made and unmade. It was to the 
Volksschule that Bismarck credited Koniggratz, and it is 
in our elementary schools, if anywhere, that imperial 
England will learn her trust and her burden. 

The German rural school is generally a plain sub- 
stantial building. It has one playground for both sexes, 
which is often planted with trees. 

The building is of two store}'s, the upper one being 

* Namely to about six dollars per child which is much less than the cost per 
child of the city primary school. 



l6 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the master's house. A school pump in the playground 
is the only lavatory accommodation provided, and the 
cloakroom is represented by a series of hat pegs in the 
corridor and class-room. 

These small one-class schools are worked in three sect- 
ions by the teacher, and the time-table is so arranged that 
the oral lessons are taken consecutively in each section. 

The teacher is a civil servant; he has absolute security 
of tenure and a relatively good social position. His up- 
bringing has generally been rural ; one third of all 
German primary teachers spring from the farming class, 
so that his sympathies and tastes are in harmony with 
his environment. Further, on the whole he is relatively 
as well off as the town teacher so that he feels quite con- 
tent with his position. But he lias grievances, and one 
of them is the serious under-staffing of many German 
rural schools. A school of 90 to 100 children is not rare, 
and the half-time school is a fairly regular feature of 
many parts of rural Germany. The older children 
come in the morning and the younger in the afternoon, 
so that one teacher may have from 100 to 150 pupils 
to deal with in one day. The same institution 
flourishes in some parts of America, and even 
the cities of New York, Washington, and Minneapolis 
have had to resort to it, owing to inadequate school 
accommodation. 

In 1896 there were in Prussia 92,001 full-sized ele- 
mentary classes but only 78,431 class-rooms for them. 
The remaining 13,570 had either to share a class-room or 
attend half-day. For every 150 rural classes there are 
only 100 class-rooms. Further 12,578 classes had no 
teacher of their own. Over six hundred thousand 
Prussian children are taught in half-day schools and 
nearly one million in ungraded schools. 



THE HALF-WAV HOUSE 17 

Nearly one and a half million Prussian children are 
taught in over-crowded classes, though a class is not 
technically overcrowded until there are over 80 children 
in the rural and 70 children in the urban class to one 
teacher. In some cases as many as 170 children to one 
teacher are recorded. To give each class a teacher and to 
reduce each to its normal size of 70 or 80 children would 
necesssitate the appointment of 20,000 more teachers.* 

Then one hears of the local managers in Germany 
fixing the hours of school meeting early in the morning 
or late in the evening, so that the daily labour of the 
children may not be unduly interfered with. In the States 
the same end is achieved by not opening the school at 
all during the period that child labour is serviceable. 
Another grievance of the German rural teacher is the 
question of extraneous duties which one fifth of all the 
teachers are called upon to perform. 

The rural school is no more popular in Germany than 
in England. It is said that one of the sons of Prince 
Bismarck will not hear of the school teacher on his estate 
having a better house than an agricultural labourer. 
Herr von Below-Saleske declared that, " people don't 
need much school learning in order to grub potatoes." 
Herr von Helldorf thus summarised his educational 
programme : " I am not for teaching arithmetic to the 
agricultural labourer. It will only spoil him. He has 
got to lead horses and handle the plough, not figures." 

So powerful is the Agrarian Party that the state has 
been compelled to allow boys of school age in East 
Prussia to leave school and serve as shepherds. The 
poet has expressed the American farmer's thought in 
words which appear to voice rural opinion all the world 
over : — 

*See Commissioner's report, U.S.A., 1898-9. Vol. I., p. 135. 



IS SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

" There ain't no great good to be reached 

By tip-toein' children up higher than ever their fathers was teached." 

The English rural school is perhaps as well housed as 
the average rural school in Germany. The German 
school is kept in a better state of repair, but in hygienic 
and sanitary conditions the English school is on the whole 
superior. The English teacher however lacks security 
of tenure, his upbringing is probably urban, and many 
inducements are held out to him to leave the country for 
the town school. 

In America, about half the total number of school 
children are taught in rural schools. " It happens that 
ungraded rural schools with a very small attendance are 
to be found even in the most thickly peopled States and 
often in proximity to cities. Rhode Island (in 1895) 
reports 158 out of its 263 schools as ungraded, and 64 
of them containing fewer than 10 pupils each ; three 
towns have in the aggregate thirty-nine schools averag- 
ing fewer than ten pupils. Vermont in 1893 reported 
153 schools with six pupils or less each. Massachusetts 
in 1893-4 reported sixteen towns with an aggregate of 
nearly lOO schools with an average of eleven pupils. 
New York in 1894-5 reported 2,983 schools with fewer 
than ten pupils each, and 7,529 with less than twenty." 
Indeed we hear of an official visit to a school in New 
York State where the teacher had no pupils at present 
but was expecting two later on. Meanwhile embroidery 
kept her employed. American rural schools are open 
for probably not more than half the number of days 
per annum that the English or German rural schools are. 

The teacher of one year will probably not be the 
teacher of the next. To many young people keeping 
school in this way is but an opportunity for making a 
little nionc)' towards some higher aim. 



THE HALF-WAV HOUSE 1 9 

The State Superintcndciit fur Connecticut writes in 
1895-6. "Half of the teachers in this State do not 
receive more than eight dollars per week, or two hun- 
dred and eighty-eight dollars per year. Out of this 
grows a crop of evils. The well-qualified are justly un- 
easy and seek better pay and permanent tenure. The 
poorer districts are depleted for the benefit of the richer, 
and the children bear the burden of incompetency and 
change." 

The rural school buildings vary enormously. Many 
of them are single-room log houses, picturesque, 
it is true, outside but within often comfortless and bare, 
and too often in a very poor state of repair ; in other cases 
they are merely rented cabins. It could hardly be other- 
wise under present conditions. Occasionally one hears 
of quite palatial little schools put up by an enterprising 
community anxious to stand well in its own and its 
neighbours' eyes, but the unstinted admiration these 
excite is full evidence of how rare such buildings are. 

The State Superintendent for Georgia estimates that 
a quarter of a million children in that State never attend 
school at all. Their whole time is taken up in farm 
work, and moreover, he adds, the schools are so uncomfort- 
able that they are only habitable in Spring and Summer- 
In the State of Indiana again out of 798,917 children of 
school age there are 529,345 children enrolled, but of 
these only 392,015 attend school. 

Of the work done in these rural schools as a whole, no 
general statement can be made. The State Superintend- 
ent for Maine, writing in 1895, states, " The State Superin- 
tendent visited two hundred of the rural schools. Of these 
six per cent, were ranked by him as excellent, twenty-one 
per cent, as good, thirty-two per cent, as fair, and forty-one 
per cent, as poor or very poor. . . . Even among the 



20 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

teachers there are some who claim to be graduates of in- 
stitutes of respectable standing, yet are among the poorest, 
apparently little cultured in text-books and wofully 
devoid of knowledge outside of them. Some of them 
are extremely young, in one case only 1 5 years old." 

" It speaks not well in these districts that so many of 
the children quit school at a too early age. Eighty-seven 
per cent, in them were under 1 3 years of age, and as far as 
could be ascertained those who had left had not gone to 
higher schools. Unfortunately this tendency has been 
increasing for some time past, notwithstanding the law 
which requires every child between 5 and 1 5 years of age 
to attend school for at least sixteen weeks in every year. 
The average attendance in the schools was 21, average 
length of term 10 weeks, and the average age of pupils 
between 8 and 9 years. The weak point in them as 
appears from these figures was not so much in the small 
attendance, as in the early age at which pupils are with- 
drawn. A very small number of the rural schools were 
supplied with books and other appurtenances for supple- 
mentary work in studies. None had what might be 
called libraries. About 90 per cent, were supplied with 
maps, but the majority of these were old and of little 
worth. About forty per cent, were supplied with 
some sort of charts. Book-keeping, Civics, Music, Draw- 
ing, instruction about plants, minerals, and animals, 
hardly obtain at all." * 

America, like England and other parts of the world, is 
finding out the defects of small administrative areas in 

"Another distinguished American educator thus writes: — "The rural 
school goes through its accustomed round from 3 to 8 months in the year 
practically managed by local trustees, often kept by the man or woman 
most agreeable to the trustees, with no provision for compulsory attendance, 
the children coming to school according to the nearness or distance of their 
place of residence, the attractiveness of the school-house, and the popularity 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 21 

education, and the cry for bigger areas is raised by all 
educators who have given a thought to the problem of 
the rural school. 

The rural school problem has received considerable 
attention from American educators, and the report of 
the Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools is one of the 
most valuable reports ever written. American educators 
have attacked the problem in quite a new way. Instead 
of taking the school to the children they take the children 
to the school. By this means these small ungraded 
schools of ten or twenty children become a fully graded 
school of 300 children. The advantages are obvious. 
It is economical and the further education of the children 
beyond the common school can be provided for. The 
motor-car has infinite possibilities of educational reform 
wrapped within its throbbing breast. Another interesting 
experiment is the introduction of the faculty system into 
rural schools by which a number of small rural schools 
are placed under one head or principal, who, besides 
being teacher of one of the schools, also acts as a kind of 
superintendent over the other schools and by advice and 
help trains the other teachers in the best methods. 

The newer urban schools of Germany have an accom- 
modation for about 1,600 children and are built on the 



of the teacher ; every little squad really ' going on its own hook,' sometimes 
almost insisting on individual teaching, usually the school of 20 to 50 children 
in one room, chopped up into ' mincemeat' by a division into little classes 
that makes the daily session a headlong race of hearing short lessons, with 
scarcely an attempt at the proper class or general work that tells on the 
entire school, and promotes that most valuable discipline. . . . There is 
still no department of American education which in proportion to its cost, 
its momentous influence on the national life, and the national sense of its 
great value to the Republic, exhibits such a melancholy waste of money and 
energy, such confusion and failure of good educational results as are apparent 
to every competent observer in the ordinary country district school." 



23 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND AUROAD 

class-room and corridor system. The class-rooms, all 
facing the north, accommodate each about 60 children, 
but as only 6 sq. feet is allowed each child the rooms 
often appear crowded. 

In England the minimum space allowed for each child 
is 10 sq. feet and in America in the newer schools 20 sq, 
feet is said to be taken as a minimum.* 

No lavatory accommodation is provided in these 
German schools other than a pump in the playground 
and drinking fountains in the corridor. In the basement, 
however, shower baths are some times fitted for washing 
the children weekly and on the south side of the building 
we get a teacher's room, conference room, and a room 
for periodically weighing and measuring the children. 
A very fine gymnasium is attached to the school. The 
school rarely, if ever, possesses a library for the pupils. 

The newer English primary and higher primary 
schools are built with a Central Hall from which class- 
rooms open out. It is not as finely furnished a building 
perhaps as the German school but fulfils its function in 
life equally well. It sometimes has a gymnasium, one or 
two Science Laboratories, and occasionally swimming 
baths in the basement. Special rooms for cookery, and 
laundry work, and woodwork, may also be attached. 
The newer American schools differ in no essential 
respect ; more use is made of iron in the construction, 
perhaps, and the staircases are beautifully wide. All the 
Chicago schools are supplied with bath tubs. The offices 
are in the basement where there is sometimes also a bicycle 
stand. The windows in all the class-rooms are carried 
to within 6 inches of the ceiling. The frame of the 
window is very lightly made. On the second story is a 
fine assembly hall with seating accommodation for all 

* " Modern American School Buildings." Bn'^^s. 



THE HALF-WAV HOUSE 23 

the children attending the school. The school is heated 
and ventilated by the Plenum system, as indeed are 
both the English and German school. 

It is impossible to distinguish between the relative ex- 
cellences of these three schools ; even experts differ. One 
tells us that the death rate of American school children is 
higher than of European children, because of the poorer 
hygienic condition of the American school,* whilst another 
asserts that the American school building is externally 
and internally superior to French, German, or English 
schools. 

It has been asserted that America spends annually 
more on school buildings than the rest of creation.f Six 
thousand new schools are annually erected. In one 
respect our English schools are admitted superior, and 
that is in the superior playground accommodation 
provided. The hearty zest with which our children play 
is full justification for this. German children rarely play, 
and American children, it is said, seem to be losing the 
power of play, a sad state of things indeed. | 

The class-room of the English and American school 
is better decorated by fine pictures and busts than is the 
German school, where indeed the only pictures are 
portraits of the three Emperors. " More would be 
distracting." The German room and its occupants are 
always clean and tidy. All waste paper goes into the 
basket. The children are extremely orderly without 
being in any sense cowed. The desks are generally 
long and cumbersome, but convenient and with backs. 

* Barrage b' Bailey "School Sanitation and Decoration." 

t Briggs, vide ante, 

X " The child of the fourth generation brought up in a large city is a 
pathetic study. It is one of the saddest sights in the world, because it is 
almost without the instinct of play." 



24 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

They are of three sizes so that each child has a fairly 
suitable desk. Myopia and spinal curvature have been 
shown to be, in the majority of cases, diseases contracted 
during school life. Cohn's and Eulenberg's figures 
apparently alarmed the German Government with a 
result that more attention is paid to hygienic consider- 
ation than was formerly the case. 

The English class-room is generally provided with 
dual desks of one or possibly two sizes. The children 
are orderly as long as the teacher's eye is on them, but it 
is evident that from an inexperienced teacher much 
silent energy at any rate would be required to secure 
discipline. 

The blackboard which is a little larger than that of 
the German class-room is still insufficient and not much 
used by the children. 

In the American class-room the blackboard fixed in 
the wall runs round the room. Often the whole class 
may be seen working away simultaneously at an 
arithmetical problem or a drawing exercise on this 
blackboard. 

Each pupil has a single desk with a revolving seat so 
that he may turn and follow his teacher as she domon- 
strates at different points of the room. The discipline is 
generally very good, but it is of a different character to 
that of the English and German school. No effort is 
exerted even silently by the teacher ; she assumes that 
the interest of the lesson itself is sufficient to maintain 
attention. " The discipline seemed to me good in nearly 
all the schools I visited, less rigid that ours, and more 
dependent on the mutual good will of the teacher and 
taught than on mechanical rules " (Zimmern) and 
Principal Salmon writes : " The discipline appeared good 
though corporal punishment was generally forbidden, or 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 25 

because it was. I did not hear any sharp words of 
command or see any concerted movements except at 
drill. The tone of a class \\as more that of a big 
family than that of a small regiment." It may be that 
too much has been made of these military methods in 
our primary schools. In some English infant schools the 
abolition of all such drills and exercises has been followed 
by the happiest results. The American teacher retains in 
her hands the only weapons for incorrigibles, namely 
expulsion, and in bad cases, drafting to a truant school. 

The fact that so much of the teaching is entrusted to 
women may lead to a lack of v-irility and strength in the 
training. There is a very outspoken criticism in the 
report of the school superintendent for Detroit. " Is it 
not possible that the increasing number of incorrigibles 
may bear some relation to this sentimentality ? I know 
that I am terribly heterodox in suggesting that a good 
sound thrashing occasionally would be of more benefit 
to a capricious spunky youngster than all the goody- 
goody talks so correctly advocated. We are getting too 
many Mamma's pets and Lord Fauntleroys, and I fear 
our system has a tendency to perpetuate it. Give us 
more good hearty moral discipline, more Sanfords, and 
Mertons, and Tom Browns." 

In many American schools the boys daily salute the 
national flag in the central hall of the school, and recite 
a vow of fealty to it. This custom has recently been 
transferred to Manilla where its efficacy will have a 
severe test. 

It must not however be forgotten in comparing 
systems of discipline, that school discipline is largely a 
matter of school architecture, and that the class-room 
system has been much longer the vogue in Germany 
and America than in England. 



26 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Let US listen to the teaching in these three class-rooms. 
The German teacher is highly trained and well 
informed. We notice how carefully he recapitulates 
and secures the ground, how little he relies upon any 
text book. Indeed the German child has no text book, 
except for arithmetic. The teacher speaks in a low 
natural voice, but he insists upon his pupils speaking 
out. In arithmetic we notice that he allows a pupil to 
come out and state and work a problem on the black- 
board in front of the class. But this is the exception ; as 
a rule the German teacher makes himself the source of 
all his pupil's knowledge. The instruction is almost 
entirely oral. There is very little written work in books 
and what there is is largely a " fair " copy of what had 
been previously done on the slate. 

The weakness of German teaching is, I think, the 
lack of cultivation of the child's self activity. No 
sufficient appeal is made to experience, the child is 
rarely taught to dig out knowledge for himself and, 
when he leaves school and teacher behind him, he is 
helpless. However, he has fulfilled his obligations to 
the State and may now with equanimity relapse into a 
blissful state of indifference to education. School has 
but rarely engendered in him a love of education, and 
though he may be compelled to attend a Continuation 
School for a year or two longer it is but a postponement 
of the joyful day when he will be released from this 
further obligation to the State. No portion of the curri- 
culum specially appeals to him. As a rule his manual 
dexterity has not been trained nor a permanent love of 
knowledge kindled by his school life. He takes with 
him from school a respect for constituted authority 
(which indeed he probably took with him to school) a 
desire to do his duty in that state of life unto which it 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 2/ 

has pleased God to call him, no more ; and perhaps a 
few gems of national poetry or song which he may be 
able to carry about with him a few years longer. Public 
opinion on educational matters amongst the labouring 
class in Germany is much the same as in other lands, 
and I do not think that there is any higher educational 
enthusiasm amongst German labourers than there is to 
be found amongst the same class in England ; but the 
German is more laAv-abiding and perhaps his sense of 
parental obligation is keener, or to put it another way, 
has not been blunted by too much being taken off his 
hands by the State. 

The pupils, boys and girls, in the American class 
room, have each a text book of the matter of the lesson, 
and generally the lesson consists of the teacher testing 
the children's knowledge of the book. " The American 
text book is a peculiar institution, self-contained and 
complete in itself It is plentifully illustrated with 
pictures and maps ; it is divided into lessons or portions ; 
it supplies questions for the teacher, names all other 
books that throw light on each particular lesson, in fact, 
does the teacher's work for her." (Zimmern). Often 
indeed the questions she asks are taken from the book 
itself, even the answers she should receive are sometimes 
given therein. Some of the brighter children appear to 
monopolise the lesson, as the system lends itself to that. 
Although the lesson is mainly oral, there is very little 
oral teaching. There is much testing and appeal to 
memory. In a Chicago school. Dr. Rice tells us that a 
teacher said to her class, " Don't stop to think but tell 
me what you know." Then again one misses the 
ordered development of the German lesson, the impart- 
ing of wisdom out of a full mind, the studied care of the 
limits. So powerful is the tyranny of the text book 



28 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

in some parts of America that we have heard of a 
candidate being asked " According to what text book 
do you teach ? " " One trouble with many people is that 
they began text books so early in life, and followed 
them so closely that they have never learned to dis- 
tinguish their own thoughts and opinions from those of 
the books ; in fact, they are scarcely aware that they 
have opinions of their own" (McMurrry). Besides this 
the very exhaustive criticism of Dr. Rice would appear 
to show that unscientific mechanical teaching as well as 
absurd fads flourish to an extraordinary extent in some 
American cities.* " A class in the second grade is to read 
a short piece and the teacher having run aground on a 
method says to herself " In reading we must enunciate 
clearly and with expression." As a preparatory exercise 
for distinct enunciation all the children must begin by 
practising the vowels aloud, with the proper position of 
the vocal organs. Furthermore the tongue must be 
relaxed, so that fifty children stretch out their tongues, 
and move them to the teacher's beating time. There- 
upon the teacher says " You have done very well, now 
we shall practise expression. Heads back." All the 



* Detroit (Michigan) — The Board of Education of this place has got 
into trouble with the female teachers in its schools. It has lately been 
studying hygiene and high art together with theories as to the kind of 
figures calisthenics ought to produce if persisted in by ladies. The conse- 
quence is that the board came to the conclusion that its women teachers 
would look more Grecian and graceful if they abstained from wearing 
corsets, and orders were accordingly issued to the ladies to discontinue 
using those articles of attire. The board explained that in its opinion 
corsets interfered with the teacher's efficioncy in taking graceful poses, that 
the ladies would look more "elegant" without the proscribed garment, 
and that the result would be the teachers would be able the more effec- 
tively to impress their scholars and educate them in an appreciation of the 
beautiful. The teachers are revolting. — Dalziel. 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 29 

fifty children throw their heads far back. Teacher — 
" Now say, I am proud, for I know who I am." The 
children do as they are told. Teacher — " Heads on the 
left shoulder. Look upward, say : — " How beautiful 
that is ! " (Expressions of astonishment). " Heads on 
the right shoulder ! do you think you can mock me. 
Heads down, say — 'All my money is gone.'" Imagine 
a whole class saying, " all my money is gone," to practise 
the expression of sorrow. Finally, a few other exercises 
to express increasing pleasure. Teacher — " Children, 
pay strict attention. What would you say if you were 
to receive an orange now?" all smile. "If you had a 
banana," — broader smiles. " If you were to get a piece 
of candy ? " Laughter. " But ice-cream ? " Shouts of 
laughter. " So," says the teacher. " Now the class is 
prepared to read the piece." Of course the children 
read with expression ; that is to say, every child in the 
worst possible manner of mimicry reads the story in 
which Katie says to MolHe, " Be very good while I am 
gone, and do not get into mischief." (Dr. Rice qd. 
by Professor Waetzoldt). In South Dakota the superin- 
tendent reports that the teaching of the evil effects of 
alcohol and tobacco is so effective " that nearly every 
pupil is ready to give a temperance lecture at a moment's 
warning." It may, however, be pointed out, that such 
teaching is not altogether a monopoly of America, and 
in spite of these occasional peculiarities, much admir- 
able work is done in American schools. Language is 
carefully taught. The children speak out loudly and 
clearly like German children do, and not like our 
children too often do. This is probably why most 
Americans are much better conversationalists than 
English people. The children's self-activity is culti- 
vated in the American school, they are taught to dig 



30 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

out knowledge for themselves.* In every school the 
children are taught to use Webster's Unabridged. Prac- 
tically all urban American schools have a fine library 
besides which the public library of every American 
town provides suitable books and special accommoda- 
tion for all children who can write their names. 
American pupils are expected to find out knowledge 
for themselves, and so the school library is an in- 
dispensable portion of the equipment of every efficient 
American school. 

Some of these school libraries, especially those of the 
high schools, are the acme of comfort and utility, and in 
them much of the total school time is often spent. 

The helplessness of the American pupil in his teacher's 
hands is not evident to him or to us. His self-respect is 
preserved and his self-resource cultivated. He leaves 
school ready to begin the real education of life, i.e., self- 
training, and naturally alert, ambitious, and confident, 
he develops into the pushful, resourceful, American 
citizen of to-day. Although this method of teaching 
may have been originally adopted because the teacher 
was untrained, yet there can be no doubt that the system 
has great advantages and admirably suits American 
characteristics. 

The foreign observer in criticising the English teacher 
is apt to lay stress upon what he considers the poor 
discipline of an English class. This inborn restlessness 
is a national characteristic of which we as a people may 
reasonably be proud, and most chary in curbing. It is 
this restlessness that has carried our folk round the globe. 
Often this busy hum, this continual restlessness of the 

* " One may say that the German Exhibition showed above all what is 
done for the pupils, while the United States Exhibition contained that 
which is done by the pupils." (Dr. Lagerstedt of Stockholm.) 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 3 1 

British class-room is the surest evidence of the children's 
self-activity. Is it not preferable to the deadly stillness 
of a " well-disciplined " school ? In any case it is not the 
difficulty to the English teacher that his critic imagines. 
English training-college teachers and professors have 
long since known that the first lesson the future teacher 
has to learn is to maintain discipline, consequently this 
training receives very careful treatment from the first. 
Hence what to another teacher would be a task absorb- 
ing a large proportion of his energy has become to the 
trained English teacher a mere matter of habit, largely 
automatic. Little of his total energy is absorbed in this 
essential matter. A German or American teacher would, 
I grant you, find practically all his energy required in 
merely securing discipline in an English class-room, but 
that would prove nothing more than that he did not 
understand the boys. The trained English teacher 
would seem to be, on the whole, a fair mean between the 
German and American teacher. His training has especi- 
ally fitted him for the practical work of teaching. He is 
a master of the technique of the class-room and the 
practical details of instruction. 

He may lack the deeper pedagogic training, the philo- 
sophical grasp, the ripeness, so to speak, of the German 
and also the vivacity and enthusiasm of the good Ameri- 
can teacher, but, on the other hand, there is a thoroughness 
and conscientiousness in his work, combined with re- 
source, which enable him to triumph over difficulties 
that would prove insuperable to a less practically trained 
teacher. 

His initiative and resource are, I venture to think, 
higher than his German colleague's and his technical out- 
fit as a teacher more thorough than that of the American 
teacher. The incubus of educational tradition does not 



32 SCIIOOI-S AT HOME AND ABROAD 

press as heavaly on the American as on the EngHsh, 
nor on the Engh'sh as much as on the German teacher. 

His teaching is more oral than the American but less 
than the German ; he uses text-books much more than 
the German but much less than the American. Finally, 
whatever may be the faults of English teaching they 
must not in common fairness be laid at the door of the 
English teacher, but at that of Mr. Robert Lowe who 
invented the system of payment by results. 

Fortunately that has passed awa}', and there is appear- 
ing in our teachers a finer spirit, a keener interest in the 
purely pedagogic side of their calling, a higher sense of 
the dignity, privileges, and obligations of their profes- 
sion, which are full of the happiest auguries for the 
future. Finally let it be said that the good teacher is a cos- 
mopolitan ; he is not confined to the Old or New World. 

The written work of our English pupil is considered 
to be superior to that of the American both in neatness 
and style. Accuracy and other virtues engendered by a 
.systematic and careful training are characteristic of the 
English pupil, whilst vivacity and originality are character- 
istic of the American pupil. Civic duty and patriotism are 
carefully cultivated both in the American and German 
urban school ; in England both are studiously neglected. 

Arithmetic absorbs more time in the English and 
American than in the German school ; indeed an Ameri- 
can Superintendent tells me that it is the fetish of the 
American school, and another American says, " In our 
country schools arithmetic is a fetish ; no subdivision of 
the book and no problem in the book may be omitted ; 
' to go through the arithmetic ' is the ambition of the 
child, and the ambition of the parent for the child." 
[Report U.S. Bureau, 1893-4.] 

The needlework of the English girls is superior to that 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 33 

of either the American or German girl, and cookery, 
laundry work, and cottage gardening are more generally 
taught in the English school than in the other two 
schools. Physical training receives more attention in 
England and America than in the German School, but 
this is supposed to be compensated for by the subsequent 
two years' military service, but no such training ever 
engenders the valuable virtues of the playground. 

The degree of illiteracy of these countries is as 

follows ; — 

TABLE A. 

Date. 
England and Wales. ..6.4 per cent men 'j.'}, per cent women.. .1891 

Scotland 3.4 „ „ 5.3 „ „ ...1891 

Ireland 19.4 „ „ 19.4 ,, „ ...1891 

Germany 0.24 „ „ 1894 

United States 13.3 „ „ and women 1894 

France 7.4 „ „ 1890 

Americans, however, reasonably enough point out that 
the incoming population, composed as it is largely of the 
scourings of Europe, accounts for this high figure for the 
States. In some of the Southern States, however, illiteracy 
is actually increasing faster than the increase of populatio7i. 

The amount annually devoted to the education of each 
child in the States is £^ 15s. od., in England, ;^2 9s. iid., 
and in Prussia, £\ 14s. od. 

Although America is spending nobly upon education, 
yet in but few civilised countries is the educational out- 
look, in some respects, so full of serious import to the 
community. 

The most serious matter, perhaps, is the fact that in 
some of the largest American cities thousands, and even, 
in some cases, tens of thousands of children are said to 
be growing up destitute of a school education. In New 
York, Chicago, St. Louis, and Philadelphia the numbers 



34 



SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 



are appalling. This is due to lack of school places, and 
the excuse urged is that it is impossible to keep up with 
the growth of these cities. But in reply it may be urged 
that some German cities have grown equally rapidly yet 
no such state of things is allowed to occur there. In the 
whole of the kingdom of Prussia there are less children 
kept from school for this reason than in New York city 
alone. The Empire city in its despair has organised 
half-day schools to minimise the danger. The fact that 
the annual vote for education in this city is not only in- 
sufficient to provide these needed premises, but some- 
times even to pay its teachers, is perhaps the better guide 
to the true cause, though the substitution of huge tene- 
ments for ordinary dwelling houses has, in recent years, had 
something to do with bringing this state of things about. 
I have tabulated the figures for some of the larger 
American cities for the year 1897-8. 



City. 


Number 


Places 


Deficiency. 




Enrolled. 


Provided. 




New York 


471,251 


385,091 


86,160 


Chicago . 


236,219 


220,575 


15,664 


San Francisco 


50,101 


39,495 


10,606 


Boston . 


85,320 


77,835 


7,485 


Detroit . 


37,131 


32,599 


4,532 


New Orleans . 


29,522 


23,383 


6,139 


Philadelphia . 


173,363 


146,475 


26,888 


Milwaukee 


40,210 


38,424 


1,786 


Buffalo . 


56,718 


53,071 


3,647 


St. Louis 


75,922 


66,722 


9,200 


Grand Rapids 


21,434 


15,928 


5,506 


Washington . 


44,698 


42,437 


2,351 


Indianapolis . 


33,853 


18,830 


15,023 


Mobile . 


8,092 


7,000 


1,092 


Atlanta . 


14,338 


10,555 


3,783 


Minneapolis . 


33,673 


32,000 


1,673 


St. Paul . 


23,790 


22,356 


1,434 


Cincinatti 


44,635 


44,700 





THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 



35 



The only localities in England and Wales which show 
a deficiency of school places at present are these towns : — 



Town. 


Number 


Places 


Deficiency. 




Enrolled. 


Provided. 




Bootle . 


9,321 


8,696 


625 


Coventry 


10,521 


10,449 


72 


Gateshead 


21,156 


20,252 


904 


Gloucester 


7,894 


7,539 


255 


Ipswich . 


11,348 


10,999 


349 


Lincoln . 


8,243 


7,877 


366 


Middlesboro'. 


16,392 


16,214 


178 


Newport, Mon. 


12,890 


12,716 


174 


Northampton 


11,953 


11,839 


114 


Southampton . 


16,990 


16,252 


738 


South Shields 


18,203 


17,877 


326 


Sunderland , 


26,908 


25,166 


1,742 


Walsall . 


15,136 


14,030 


1,106 


Yarmouth 


9,563 


9,108 


455 


Cardiff . 


30,661 


29,055 


1,606 



For the Kingdom of Prussia in 1890 the figures 
were: — Children of school age, 5,299,310; of these 

Attending public schools, 93 per cent. 

„ private „ 5^ per cent. 

Had no room, 3,239 

Did not attend owing to physical or mental 

incapacity, ... ... ... ... 10,041 

Failed to attend without sufficient excuse, ... 945 or xf of 

I per cent. 

In England and Wales there are more than sufficient 
places for all children of school age. In 1899 there were 
in the Counties 4,757,687 places for 4,112,501 scholars 
enrolled, and in the County Boroughs there were 
1,683,458 places for 1,559,902 scholars. 

American official statistics show that the number of 
children enrolled on the school registers is larger in pro- 
portion to the population than in any other country. 



36 SCHOOLS at home and abroad 

Unfortunately the laws of compulsory attendance, where 
they do exist, are rarely enforced. 

In 1897-8 only 68 per cent, of the numbers enrolled 
attended school regularly. Further, the American school 
is not opened, as is the English school, for at least 200 
days. 

In 1897-8 the average school year for the whole of the 
States was 144.3 days. 



Rhode Island, 


191 days. 


Massachusetts, 


186 days. 


Michigan, 


160 „ 


North CaroHna, 


68.8 „ 


Arkansas, 


69 „ 







In other words, the average American child will receive 
from three to five years of school instruction of 200 days ; 
the average English and German child will get quite seven 
years,* 

Children leave school early in the States as well as in 
England, particularly the boys, who, it has been said, as 
they grow older rather resent being taught by female 
teachers. 

" In the classes composed of children from ten years 
and upwards there was an increasing preponderance of 
girls. It is stated that over 50 per cent, of the children who 
ever enter school leave before the age of ten. If this be 
so, a much larger proportion of boys do not attend school 
after that age." — Grasby. 

In spite of such facts an American writes, " That the 
public system of education has been carried in our 
country during the last half century to a degree of per- 

* Number of years schooling (of 200 days) each individual receives in 
both public primary and secondary School in 1899 : — 

Years. Ve.ars. Years- 

N. Atlantic Div., 5.67 S. Central Div., 2.88 Western Division, 5.28 

S, Atlantic Div., 2.78 N, Central Div., 5.14 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 37 

fection heretofore unknown to any country of the world 
none will deny ; and that to-day the United States is far 
in advance of all other nations in this respect will also 
be admitted." 

Wiser Americans, however, bitterly bewail this state of 
things. Truant officers have been appointed in New 
York State, as well as three State inspectors whose duty 
it is to assist or compel the local authorities to enforce 
the law. We at home know how futile such efforts are, 
unless backed by a rigorous administration of the law. 
Elsewhere we hear of citizens banding themselves to- 
gether for using moral suasioji to get the children to 
school ! 

The attendance in Germany is, I consider, perfect — 
that is to say, there is practically no avoidable leakage. 
In France, too, a fairly high figure is reached. These 
results are not altogether due to a keener love of edu- 
cation, but it is, I imagine, to both being military States, 
where parents obey the law as a matter of course. 
The law of compulsory attendance is so clear and so 
automatic that it never occurs to a German parent to 
attempt to evade it. 

" Make your educational laws strict and your criminal 
laws may be gentle, but leave youth its liberty and you 
will have to dig dungeons for old age," says Ruskin. 

Every birth in Germany is recorded, and twice a year 
a census of the school population of the district is taken 
by the police and the list given to the school master. 
Every absence is reported to the police by the teacher, 
and they make enquiries and, if necessary, fine the 
parents. That is all. 

In England and Wales the average attendance of all 
children is 81.6 per cent., but of older children — that is of 
comparable age to German children — the figures are 



38 Schools at home and abroad 

87.5 per cent. One of the main causes for the better 
attendance in Germany is that there are raore schools in 
proportion to the population than in England. In 
Prussia there are 36,138 public elementary schools, in 
England only 15,199 (excluding infants' schools). 
Children rarely walk any considerable distance to 
school — in fact, only one child out of every 25 walks 
one and a half miles or more to school in the Fatherland. 
In the whole of Prussia there is one school to every 
874 inhabitants; in England, one to every 1,550 in- 
habitants, and in America, one to every 300 people. 

The Prussian elementary schools are practically all 
denominational. There are 24,487 Protestant, 10,725 
Catholic, 246 Jewish, and 680 ^' Mixed" schools. 
The city schools average 418 pupils each, and those of 
the villages and country 109 pupils each. 

The German teacher is pedagogically the finest 
trained teacher in the world. For practical skill in the 
handling of large classes the English teacher is un- 
equalled. For spontaneity, vivacity, and enthusiasm it 
would be difficult to find a peer of the American 
teacher. But these are generalities. 

The German teacher is trained for six years, — three 
years in a preparatory normal school where his element- 
ary training is deepened but not widened much, and 
three years in the normal school where a similar training 
is given, together with the special technical training 
required for his professional duties. 

During the last year he teaches in the model school 
for from six to ten hours weekly. Every German Train- 
ing College must have attached to it not only a graded 
but also an ungraded model school. 

A foreign language may be, but only occasionally is, 
taken up by the student. Students in Training Colleges 



tHE HALF-WAY HOUSE 39 

are not allowed to take notes duriiig a lecture. The 
Germans hold that taking notes distracts the listener 
and diminishes seriously the value of the lecture. Ger- 
mans are invariably good listeners. 

German educational reformers, like English reformers, 
are asking for a widening and enrichment of the normal 
school curriculum, and for utilising the secondary school 
(Realschule) for the training of teachers. 

The graduate of a German Training College does not 
receive his full diploma until he has passed a further 
examination in pedagogy at the end of at least two 
years. During these two years he is carefully watched 
and helped by his training college teachers. He is then 
appointed to a school where, in some provinces, he is 
expected to stay at least three years. He possesses 
absolute security of tenure, and is entitled to a sick pension 
after ten years' service, and a full service pension at 
sixty-five. He is fairly well paid, and enjoys a good 
social status. That the profession is popular is shown 
by the fact that about one-fifth of all German teachers 
are sons of teachers. 

Women teachers have not hitherto received fair treat- 
ment in Germany. They come generally from a higher 
social class than the men, being largely the daughters of 
military or professional men, too poor to provide the 
dowry so indispensable for a German girl's marriage. 

These women have generally been through a middle 
or secondary school course and have sat for the examina- 
tion of secondary teachers, but have failed in some one 
or other subject, and so get only the lower diploma — that 
licenses them to teach in the primary school. 

The Training College accommodation for women is 
also very inadequate, and even the men teachers in girls' 
schools are rather looked down upon by the male teachers 



40 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

of other schools. Altogether the position of women 
teachers, or even a teacher of girls, is not altogether a 
desirable one in Germany, but this feeling will doubtless 
disappear in time. The head teacher of all girls' schools 
and at least one other teacher must be males. These 
men teachers have a very pleasant .sympathetic way 
with the girls. 

The English teacher, under favourable circumstances, 
begins to teach, or rather assist, when about fifteen to 
sixteen years of age, and for three years spends half a 
day in the school. The remainder of the day is spent at 
a special school for pupil teachers, where the instruction 
is given generally by University graduates who are also 
trained teachers, and under favourable conditions as 
regards equipment and accommodation. There are 
probably few institutions in the kingdom of the work of 
which less is popularly known than these central schools. 
To compare the condition of the pupil teacher of to-day 
with that of say ten years ago is foolish, and many 
observers and critics of the English teacher have failed 
to recognise or fully appreciate the revolution these 
institutions have silently effected. 

The English teacher is said to have two years' training ; 
it would be more correct to say that under favourable 
circumstances he will receive five years' thoroughly sound 
training. The number of University graduates too in 
our primary schools, though small, is increasing, and a 
rapidly increasing proportion of English teachers are 
receiving what is practically a University training in our 
Day Training Colleges. 

No, the real defect of our English trained teacher is 
that we haven't got enough of him. Seventy-two per 
cent, of English male teachers, and forty-nine per cent, 
of female teachers arc trained. If both are combined there 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 4 1 

are only fifty-eight per cent, of our certificated teachers who 
are college trained ; the others are " trained," it is true, 
and have passed precisely the same examination, but 
have not received the advantages of a normal school 
training. Behind this insufficiency of the college trained 
teacher is the inadequate training college accommoda- 
tion in England. The present training college accom- 
modation suffices for a teaching force of 42,000 instead 
of 62,000. Prussia and Germany generally are able to 
turn out annually just the number of trained teachers 
required for the schools of the country. This they are 
able to do with great exactitude, owing to the prepara- 
tory lists drawn out by the inspectors and provincial 
councils of the probable requirements of the district for 
each year. German Training Colleges are smaller and 
more numerous than ours, and are generally located in 
small provincial towns. 

No unqualified teachers, such as our Article 6'^, are 
employed in the German school excepting for the teach- 
ing of needlework. This, in rural districts, is taught by 
the master's wife, or a woman from the village. I wonder 
hov/ many American teachers in out of the way places 
would find that that was the only article in the English 
Code which just about covered their qualifications ! 
Neither America nor Germany has anything quite 
similar to our pupil teacher, but in the schools of Chicago 
there are what are called " school cadets," who are 
young people who intend becoming teachers. They 
assist in teaching all day, and are paid seventy-five cents 
for the toil. In Germany too, a boy of fourteen or fifteen 
is often found helping the master to teach his school of 
from eighty to a hundred children. These boys usually 
develop into fully fledged teachers. That there is some- 
thing to be said for our system is the opinion of Am.erica's 

3 



42 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND AlU^OAD 

greatest authority, Dr. W. T. Harris : "In my opinion 
we have something to learn from this monitorial 
system {i.e., the P. T. system of England). The 
kindergarten and ungraded school in rural districts 
can, it seems to me, adopt a form of the Lancasterian 
system which would serve a good purpose. The cost 
of the Kindergarten may be reduced to one-fifth of 
what it is under the present plan, and the ungraded 
school may train its higher pupils more effectively 
as pupil teachers than by the present stereotyped 
system." And one of the leaders of German pedagogy, 
who is himself a rural teacher, has strongly advocated 
the introduction of the pupil teacher system into the 
German country school. 

Indeed it would seem that the rural school anywhere 
in the world cannot, under present circumstances and 
with reasonable economy, be worked without employing 
persons of the nature of pupil teacher and Article 68. It 
is largely the reluctance to employ such that causes the 
fearful understafifing of many German rural schools. 
There is a wonderful similarity in the difficulties of the 
rural school all the world over. A man crosses a ditch in 
much the same way whether in Timbuctoo or Cali- 
fornia. 

Of the English qualified teacher 34 per cent, of him 
is male, and practicall}' the same proportions {i.e. 31 per 
cent.) hold for the American teacher, whereas of the 
German teacher there is only about 13 per cent, female. 
Of the whole teaching staff of the English school however, 
75 per cent, is female. In England as in America the 
rapidly growing preponderance of the female teacher 
is mainly due to economic reasons, but in Germany 
this is not so much so. 

Curiously enough, or perhaps obviously enough, where 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 43 

education is most advanced in the States, there the 
female teacher thrives best : — 

e.g.^ In Chicago only 6.6 per cent, of total teachers are male. 

In New York State City teachers 8.0 per cent, are male, and 
of the State teachers 21.0 per cent, are male. 
And of normal school pupils the females form : — 

93 per cent, in Massachusetts. 
99 per cent, in Connecticut. 
100 per cent, in New Hampshire. 

The American male teacher will soon be as extinct as 
the bison. At present his habitat is mainly the back- 
woods and morasses of the Southern States. 

Of the American teacher the most diverse views may 
reasonably be held, for she is as diverse as she is 
numerous. No general statement of her capacity can 
be made not even for the teachers of each State. 

Towns vary, States vary, Massachusetts for example, 
has nearly 40 per cent, of its teachers graduates of normal 
colleges, and the New England States generally have 
a considerable proportion of teachers who have received 
some training.* But this training is often rather meagre. 

" According to the judgment of a very competent 
American school teacher, the work done in normal 
schools does not compare with that of a German 
seminary." 

Indeed an American writer asserts that " A prepara- 
tion in pedagogics for the profession is almost entirely 
wanting ; in fact, the principle has been enunciated that 
a teacher in the public schools need not know more 
than he must teach, and that a knowledge of his text 

*"No State makes a better showing than Massachussets, but 
in 1897-8 only 38"5 per cent, of her teachers in public schools had 
received normal instruction, and only 33*5 per cent, were 
normal graduates." — Hinsdale. 



44 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

book is sufficient." Even the principals of primary 
schools will deny the need of professional training for 
the teacher. The fact that some of the finest Training 
Colleges perhaps in the world are American in no way 
affects the above statements. 

Of all American primary teachers it has been said, 
that one third have passed through a normal school of 
some kind or other. Where the remaining two-thirds 
obtain their qualifications is somewhat difficult to say. 
"It may be presumed that less than one-sixth of the 
supply of new teachers come from the training schools 
especially designed to educate teachers" (Dr. Harris). 

" But the true professional competency of our 
teachers taken all in all, does not become fully ap- 
parent until we consider that not more than a small 
percentage of persons engaged in teaching in the public 
schools of this country are normal school graduates. 
Of those teaching, besides the normal school graduates, 
others have simply attended a normal school, high 
school or academy, for one or more terms, while a very 
large number of licences to teach are granted to those 
whose education does not extend beyond that received 
at a grammar school, with or without a little extra 
coaching." (Dr. Rice). It may be pointed out that the 
American grammar school is simply our " senior 
mixed " i.e. a primary school for children between ten 
and fourteen years old. 

The s)'stem of certification by which the local school 
authority licenses its teachers for a varying number of 
years, has a double effect. On the one hand it unsettles 
the teachers, and gives them no security of tenure, not 
even that of the English teacher with his life certificate ; 
on the other hand, it prevents stagnation, and en- 
courages the introduction of new ideas and experiments. 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 4§ 

In the Statd of New York, of all the teachers 
employed — 

1,115 received a diploma from the State Superintendent. 
3,927 held normal school certificates. 
28,536 were licensed by local officers. 

This renewal of the certificate is, in the majority of 
cases, a mere formality, but whereas the German teacher 
has an official life of twenty-five years, that of the 
American is five years. In spite of this, " The office of 
teaching in the average American school is perhaps the 
only one in the world that can be retained indefinitely 
in spite of the poorest incompetence." (Dr. Rice). 

Just as, in considering the strength of the English 
teaching staff, it was necessary if we would form a true 
estimate of its comparative power, to consider not only 
the college trained, but also the school trained teacher, 
as well as the preliminary training now so largely 
given in the special school for pupil teachers, so, in 
considering and estimating the technical outfit of the 
American teacher, we should obtain a very inadequate 
estimate of the real strength, if we neglected to consider 
the many subsidiary agencies for training which have 
been so highly and largely developed in America. 

In the first place comes the School Superintendent, 
who is as a rule the executive officer of the State, County, 
or Township educational Board. This Board be it re- 
membered, has no Whitehall to stimulate or moderate 
its educational zeal as may seem necessary. Of its 
own sweet will it may make of its land an educational 
Paradise or desert. 

Hence in a pushing, go-ahead town, anxious to 
attract a good class of residents, one of the chief 
attractions offered may be a magnificent set of schools. 
A few leagues away parsimony may take ample revenge. 



46 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Let us return to the School Superintendent, who, in the 
best circumstances, is a highly trained expert, but in 
other cases too often an astute pohtician. The State 
Superintendent for Maine in his report for 1896 writes — 
"Of the School Superintendents (in this State) 35 per 
cent, are farmers, the rest are teachers, physicians, house- 
keepers, merchants, lawyers, clergymen, carpenters, 
lumbermen, labourers, druggists, journalists, fishermen, 
postmasters, engineers, painters, stonecutters, black- 
smiths, and one each of express agents, book-keepers, 
guides, saw-filers, surveyors, ferrymen, barbers, painters, 
manufacturers, haberdashers, railroad postal clerks, 
dairymen, and spinsters. Four per cent devote all 
their time to this business. The rest devote such time 
as they are willing to take from their personal 
affairs." 

One of the chief duties of the Superintendent is to train 
the teachers up to his methods and ideals. His tenure 
of office will probably not be long ; meanwhile he will 
probably make things hum. So much power is con- 
centrated in the Superintendent's hands that, for the 
time being, he is the educational autocrat of the dis- 
trict. He sometimes selects the text books, invariably 
prescribes in detail the methods, defines the curriculum 
and fixes the ideals. Indeed there is no room left for 
the teacher's initiative. This is all very well for a poor, 
untrained teacher, but for a well trained teacher it must 
be painfully galling. " The truth is, that as a rule our 
teachers are too weak to stand alone, and therefore 
need constantly to be propped up by the supervisory 
staff." (Dr. Rice). I have by me an admirable scheme 
based upon the soundest principles of modern pedagogy, 
drawn out by the Superintendent of Schools in a 
Californian town. It is really excellent, and affords 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 47 

evidence of how the Hght is encircHng tiie globe. It is 
a far cry to California, yet the land of the setting sun 
would seem to be coming the land of the rising sun. 
But, however admirable, such a detailed scheme in 
method would never be tolerated in England nor even 
in Germany. 

The American teacher is treated like a child. She is 
told what to eat and how to eat, what to teach and how 
to teach. Perhaps one may summarise the whole matter 
thus : — 

Germany gets a highl}^ trained teacher and leaves him 
largely alone. The Government inspector sees him once 
in about four or five years. (The constant visits of the 
parochial inspector are of course neglected in making 
this statement.) 

England gets a less highly trained teacher, gives him 
free play as to method, but sends her official to see him 
twice a year. 

America gets a teacher and teaches him, and sends 
her official to see him many times a year. 

Let us hark back to other subsidiary methods of 
training the teacher in America. It is said that American 
teachers are always endeavouring to improve their pro- 
fessional knowledge, whereas the average English teacher 
only rarely follows up the pedagogical training received 
in the Training College. It is certain from the number 
of American periodicals and books on educational topics 
that there is a much larger circle of educational readers 
in America than in England. 

Even English writers on education obtain a wider 
circulation in America than at home. Teachers' meet- 
ings again are much more highly organised in America 
and in Germany, and are less concerned with the politics 
than with the pedagogics of education than they are in 



48 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

England. Meetings of this kind are held monthly in 
Germany, which the teachers are compelled to attend, 
their expenses being defrayed by the State. The district 
inspector presides, and the papers read are on pedagogic 
questions of interest to the teachers, and such conferences 
are concluded by a convivial concert and supper which 
serves to cement the pleasant feeling of camaraderie so 
essential to the success of the profession. 

In America too the School Boards pay their teachers' 
expenses and compel them to attend these meetings. 
These may extend over three or four days, and the 
public attend largely and take a keen interest in the 
discussions. Railway companies and hotel proprietors 
offer special facilities for such gatherings. 

However, after all is said and done, it is the opinion 
of Americans themselves that matters educational v/ill 
never be on a sound footing in America until a real pro- 
fession of teaching has been established. At present 
such a profession can liardly be said to exist. An 
American official report states : " In the United States 
the profession of teaching seemis to be a kind of waiting 
room in which the young girl awaits a congenial ulterior 
support, and the young man a more advantageous 
position." But here again one must be wary of drawing 
conclusions thus. In America a man and woman too 
plays many parts ; no profession is closed, no career 
barred to the enterprising American. 

He may indeed be everything b}' turn and nothing 
long : a lawyer to-day, a superintendent to-morrow, a 
divine on Sunday. Teaching is in this respect like other 
professions in America, and the philosopher may perhaps 
wisely pause to consider whether such a state of affairs 
is not in accordance with the eternal fitness of things 
where you have a big people settling down in a new 



tliE HALF-WAY-HOUSE 49 

home. America is crystallising out, and as yet it is 
difficult to say what shape the crystal will take on. 

Finally a word as to payment of teachers. For the 
year 1897-8 the average annual pay of American teachers 
was for males £109, females £93, calculated on the 
monthly pay sheet. For the same year, 1897-8, the 
average pay of English teachers was for males £124, 
females £83. The salaries of English headmasters has 
increased 35 per cent., and of headmistresses 48 per cent, 
during the last twenty-five years. 

In the kingdom of Prussia the average pay of male 
teachers, according to statistics collected in 1896, was 
for city teachers £96, and for country teachers £64, or a 
general average for male teachers of S^JJ per annum. 
For female teachers the average pay in city schools was 
S^66, and in country schools £54, or a general average of 
£61. The female teacher in America gets 85 per cent., 
in Prussia 80 per cent., and in England only 6^ per cent, 
of the salary awarded to the male teacher. The smaller 
difference in America is probably due to the relatively 
higher efficiency of the bulk of the American female 
teachers as compared to the bulk of male teachers. A 
pedagogically trained male American teacher is some- 
what of a vara avis. 

It must be remembered, however, in comparing these 
figures that the length of the school year, like the buying 
capacity of money, vaiics considerably in these three 
States, and also that in Prussia all schools have a dwelling 
house attached, and that firing is allowed for the school 
house, and further that in Germany and England teachers 
are entitled to pensions. Moreover all German country 
schools are provided with a garden for the use of the 
master. These items, namely, house, garden, and firing, 
were duly considered in the above figures for Prussia, 



50 SCIlUOLS AT HOME AND A];KOAO 

but not in those of England and America. Of English 
schoolmasters 25 per cent,, and of mistresses 12J per 
cent., are provided with school residences. 

It is a significant little fact that teachers are not paid 
during absences from school or during holidays in the 
States. 

Let me say something as to the attitude of the school 
to the people. In America it is customary for any visitor 
to a city of any claims to progress to be shown round the 
schools. As a rule the American school is the finest 
architectural structure in the town. So customary is this 
visiting that chairs are placed in each class-room for the 
convenience of callers. One of two results probably 
follows, either the class work is disturbed or a certain 
priggishness is liable to be engendered. American 
teachers admit this, and some of them would gladly see 
this custom abolished. 

In Germany a parent visiting a school without a special 
permission from the authorities (which is rarely granted), 
is fined. No encouragement is given to a parent to take 
any active part in the training of his child. It is true 
that once a year parents are invited to the school 
" examination," which is the only examination that the 
school holds, but every item of the programme is carefully 
rehearsed beforehand by pupil and teacher before being 
submitted to so critical an audience. Many of the 
teachers would like to see even this little pleasantry 
abolished. 

The picture of an irate mother exhausting her vocabu- 
lary on the school doorstep occasionally seen in England 
makes one inclined to feel that there is something in the 
German view of the matter. 

But these facts are significant of the school and State 
attitude towards the people. 



THE HALF-WAY HOUSE 5 I 

The working classes in Germany take no active 
interest in the school In England they vote at Board 
elections ; in America they take a pride in them and 
show you round. After all, the differences are those of 
a bureaucratic and a democratic State. England is the 
half-way house. < 

POSTCRIPT. 

As I lay my pen down, strains of music reach me. 
There across the way is a group of German lads of from 
thirteen to twenty years of age. They seem weary 
after many days' travel through this pleasant land of 
England. Sad, stern faces with set jaws they seem to 
pull forth the music automatically from their strings. 
What brings these lads so far from home? Why have 
they left their beautiful Fatherland behind, and why do 
they hurry thus to the West? See how their faces 
brighten as the evening sun pours his light into their 
faces. What are they thinking of? What means this 
picture? It is the children crying for the light, for 
freedom, for self-development. Behind them are restraint, 
bureaucracy and conscription ;* in front they see life 
and liberty. Small wonder is it that these German 
children become American citizens so readily. Of what 
advantage is it that a man gains the whole world of 
knowledge and loses his own soul. Better the intel- 
lectual levity of America than the cultured servitude of 
Europe. And as I muse, the lads break into fresh 
music, not indeed " Der Wacht am Rhein," but — " The 
New Jerusalem." 

* I have heard it stated that conscription is popular in Germany, but I 
have also read that there are 20,ooo desertions annually from the German 
army. I wonder which is true ? 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS 
GERMAN RIVAL 

Comparisons are, it is said, odious, particularly to the 
objects compared ; nevertheless, the basis of all know- 
ledge is comparison. The maxim mentioned is, you 
will find, most readily quoted by those who fear it most. 

In comparing two systems of education many requi- 
sites are necessary. For example, ever}^ care should be 
taken that due appreciation of every element on both 
sides of the equation has been made — next, the personal 
factor in the equation should have been eliminated, and 
many other factors must be considered before a com- 
parison can be made that will be above criticism. It is 
evident that to make such a comparison is not within 
my power, nor, were it, would it be my wish. I prefer 
the world of nature as seen by the lark rather than by 
the ostrich ; what one loses in accuracy of detail one 
gains in breadth of outline. The many inequalities, 
peculiarities if you will, are largely lost, but the general 
beauty of the whole becomes more evident. 

These two national systems of education are 
thoroughly characteristic. The German system is 
built on a philosophical basis throughout, and when 
one is most inclined to criticise, one feels that logically 
the German is unassailable ; fortunatcl}' for us, life is 
not logical. The English system, on the other hand, is 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL S3 

like the British Constitution ; it works remarkably well 
on the whole, but no one quite knows how or why. 

I have said that these two systems of education are 
characteristic. Let me amplify this statement. Eng- 
land is essentially a democratic country ; Germany, 
even to-day, is not. Class distinctions are very keen 
in Germany, and it is extremely difficult for a man to 
pass from one class of society to another. The educa- 
tional ladder of which we in Wales are reasonably 
proud, is neither in existence nor indeed is it, I believe, 
desired in Germany. The primary schools of Germany 
are intended for and are utilised mainly by one class, 
i.e., the labouring class ; the lower middle class send 
their children at nine years of age (and even before)* 
for a six years' course to the Realschule, which is 
socially the class of school immediately above the 
Volksschule or people's school. The Realschule teaches 
no classical language, and the careers open to its 
graduated pupils are limited ; then comes the Ober- 
realschule for another class ; next you have Pro- 
gymnasium and Real-gymnasium, and, finally, the Gym- 
nasium the elite of the secondary schools for children of 
the higher classes, and with every career in the land 
open to its pupils. It is very difficult for a child to 
pass from one school to another, and the future career 
for a German child is generally fixed for him by his 
parents when he is nine years old. Another feature 
deserves mention. A highly-organized military State 

* The secondary schools of Germany have generally a preparatory or 
Vorschule attached, where children from the age of 6 to 9 years attend. 
The teachers are primary teachers, but the school is essentially a class- 
school, not a Volksschule. Where such Vorschule does not exist, then 
these middle-class children do attend the Volksschule [e.g., Bavaria), from 
6 to 9 years of age. 



54 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

like France or Germany will always enjoy good attend- 
ance ; parents and children obey the voice of the State 
as the voice of God ; further, the systems of such States, 
educational, social and political, always make a good 
picture, and as far as the form is concerned will compare 
favourably with, say, the educational systems of demo- 
cratic countries like England and America. Yet I 
believe that the most valuable factors, such as the 
elasticity, originality and self-help which characterise 
the democratic system, and which cannot be summed 
up and estimated in a comparison such as I am making, 
are of much greater value than that beautiful symmetry 
and philosophical unity that undoubtedly characterise 
the more highly organised system of Germany. 

In this paper I do not propose going into much 
detail, nor to pit school against school. I shall simply 
compare the two mental pictures I possess — namely 
the good German primary (urban and rural) school 
with what I think is a type of a good primary school in 
England or Wales. Let me, however, state here one, 
general fact, and that is, that there is greater uniformity 
of efficiency in German than in English schools. I 
believe there is a much greater difference between the 
bad and the good English primary school than there is 
between the good and bad German school. 

A child is not of school age in Germany until it is 
six years old ; consequently, Germany possesses no 
system of infant schools such as we possess. It has 
been asserted that happy is such a country and such 
children, that w^e English get our children into school 
and send them out of school too early ; that, however 
is not, I think, the opinion of foreigners themselves, 
who are restrained from imitating our infant school 
.system mainly by the expense. I am not disposed 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS OERIMAN RIVAL 55 

personally to deny that, as an ideal, the longer your 
child can be kept out of the cramping influence of the 
school and in close touch with Nature, the better will 
his training be, but that is an ideal. Such a training is 
possible in the country, but absolutely impossible in 
English or German towns. The infant schools may be 
a disagreeable necessity, nevertheless they are a neces- 
sity, and as the German is daily becoming more and 
more urban, so is this necessity of a system of infant 
schools pressing more and more heavily upon him. 

Consequently, in the large towns private societies are 
attempting to cope with this difficulty by organising 
Kindergartens for children under six years of age. 
Such schools are in no way recognised by the State or 
municipality. Indeed, many German teachers look upon 
these infant schools with undisguised contempt, and my 
impression is that Froebel is a striking example of the 
saying that a prophet is without honour in his own 
country. 

Besides the proper teachers in these German Kinder- 
gartens, there are also so-called pupil teachers, who are 
qualifying themselves as nursery governesses, or even as 
nurses. These do not teach but watch the proper 
teachers. These pupil teachers' time-table includes one 
hour daily for study of the philosophy of the Kinder- 
garten. Imagine an English mother requiring her new 
nurse to write a critical summary of Froebel's Law of 
Unity. Ten children to one teacher, and all seated 
around a table, form the class. Talking is encouraged 
and formal lessons prohibited. 

It is difficult to compare such a training place as this 
German Kindergarten with the English infant school. 
Instead of 10, the teacher often has 60 children, with 
the natural result that to make the machine move at all 



56 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

it must be lar<;ely worked as a machine. For one mind 
(and that normal) to attempt to train simultaneously 60 
different acti\'ities is evidently impossible. Hence the 
60 different activities must be consolidated, say, into 10, 
and so disappears, at one fell swoop, by one revolution 
of the educational wheel, all that valuable diversity of 
type which nature has so generously provided us with. 
How much trouble " le bon Dieu " Vv'ould have saved us 
all if He had givsn us only one type to deal with. 

Despite this appalling difficulty, however, the resource 
of the English teacher has often risen superior to the 
surroundings, and there are, I think, many English infant 
schools which, in some respects, are unequalled in the 
Fatherland. The building of our infant schools is often 
much superior — indeed, the German Kindergarten rarely 
possesses premises adequate to the good work done. 
Our infant schools are better furnished and decorated ; 
the hours of attendance of the children are not so long. 
For example, a German Kindergarten is open for six 
hours daily. Much of this time, however, is spent in the 
playground, under the trees, or in the sand-pit. There is 
more vigour and vivacity in English than in German 
children, and, moreover, the English infant school does 
not confine itself closely to Froebelian games, and there- 
fore the exercises are often brighter and more vivacious. 

For example, the other day I was in an infant school 
where proper breathing exercises preparatory to the 
vocal music vv^ere taught. In another school I saw the 
infants go through a square dance admirably, and the 
marching was simply excellent. Another admirable 
exercise which the babies indulged in was a jumping 
exercise. In another school the older infants attended 
the school swimming bath weekly, and were being trained 
in the elements of swimming b\' a properly - qualified 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 57 

instructor. Around an extending blackboard in the 
central hall of another school I saw the little ones busy 
at free-arm drawing, sketching, with ready skill, objects 
connected with their nature lessons. It is unnecessary 
for me to describe the exercises in brush work, cane 
plaiting, and modelling, etc., etc., which serve to prove 
that, despite the large classes, our infant teachers are 
able to cultivate the child's self-activity in many direc- 
tions, and with much success. Still, it must be confessed 
that too rarely indeed is the infant school of England 
entitled to be called a true Kindergarten. 

There are two matters 1 should like to touch upon 
here : — 

I. It is a typically English characteristic (outwardly at 
any rate) to depreciate and criticise our own efforts in 
every direction. For example, we are often told that 
children do not leave school in France or Germany until 
13 or 14. That is generally true, though a child may 
even now leave school in France at 11, provided he 
passes a certain examination. However, this gives the 
average French or German child a school life of seven 
or eight years. On the other hand, the average English 
child has a school life of eight or nine years. 

Another point is the irregularity of attendance in our 
infant schools. In this case, however, there are no means 
of comparison, as no record of attendance is kept in the 
German Kindergarten. Personally, I think that high 
average attendance in an infant school is not to be looked 
for, as a rule. There must be, surely, some days in the 
year when children between three and five years of age 
cannot, and, indeed, should not, be sent to school. The 
school law of attendance in Germany is so clear that every- 
one understands it, in England so complicated that only a 
few specialists have fathomed its depths. A fine, and 

4 



58 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

ultimately imprisonment, is the result of the parents* 
contumacy in Germany ; in England, on the other hand, 
it is said that it pays parents to flout the law and employ 
the boy. But stronger than any law is public opinion, 
and public opinion is set against school absenteeism in 
Germany. A German parent who fails to send his boy 
to school loses at once that respect of his fellow citizens 
upon which his own self-respect is based. Two per cent, 
of absentees all the year round, occasionally five per 
cent, for town schools are the usual numbers given you. 
In London, on the other hand, 100,000 children are, I 
believe, absent from school every day. Things are better 
in other parts. I was in a large school the other day 
where, out of 699 names on registers, 698 were in atten- 
dance. The average attendance for the last five months 
at this school had been 100 per cent. In a London 
Board School I found 95 per cent, of the children present. 
But, as you know, these are the brilliant exceptions which 
prove the rule, that, roughly speaking, about one million 
children are daily absent from school in England and 
Wales. This is an absolutely dead loss, and will remain 
so until public opinion has been educated up to the 
German level in this matter. 

Why not call in the policeman to help us to get the 
children into school as they do in Germany ? 

I would like to point out here that these abnormally 
high attendances call for quite as much critical investiga- 
tion as abnormally low attendances. In one of these 
cases, at an)- rate, I saw a child in school who ought not 
to have been there. This poor boy had not been absent 
from school for five years, and so, for the sake of a brass 
medal, he was, I think, sacrificing what is of infinitely 
more value — a sound body. 

Before proceeding to the curriculum of the primary 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GER^IAN RIVAL 59 

school let us compare the two school buildings, German 
and English. 

The best primary schools in Germany are built on the 
class-room and corridor system, in three or four storeys, 
with accommodation for about 1,600 children. In the 
basement is a set of shower baths for washing the children 
weekly. The school has no central hall, but a magnifi- 
cent gymnasium most elaborately, and indeed luxuriously, 
fitted up. Here the school assembles for prayers and 
singing, or for any exercises of a collective character. 

The class-rooms, which all face the north, are fitted 
with dual desks. The beautifully clean walls are very 
bare, only pictures of the three Emperors, as a rule, 
relieving this monotony. The school as a whole is built 
of freestone and white brick, and surmounted by a clock 
tower. The corridors are tiled and have recesses for 
hats and cloaks. Here and there are umbrella stands. 
Along the corridor also are placed drinking fountains, 
but no lavatory accommodation appears to be provided. 
The class-rooms have block floors. There is a conference 
room, a head-master's room, and assistant teachers' room, 
together with a chart-room, and a room for weighing and 
measuring the children periodically. German school 
authorities provide suitable desks for children of different 
heights and sizes. 

In the middle or higher grade schools, in addition, are 
lecture theatres for chemistry, physics and natural history. 
Only in Berlin and Munich are the girls taught cookery 
and laundry work. 

The English primary school is built on the class-room 
and central hall system. Huge mixed schools of 1,400 
or 1,600 children, divided up into about 20 classes, are 
becoming the rule in some parts of England. 

The organisation of such immense schools requires 



6o SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

unusual care, and I was surprised to notice recently how 
skilfully this is carried out. I saw a Yorkshire school of 
1, 200 children assemble in the central hall from their 
class-rooms, each child taking up a definite position 
according to his height and voice, and dismissed to the 
playground within five minutes. It was a magnificent 
bit of organisation, and most creditable to the care and 
patience of the teachers. 

Several English schools have hip-baths, and swimming 
baths attached, where the children are taught diving and 
swimming. It is a characteristic fact that the Germans 
are content to wash their children ; we not only wash 
them but teach them to swim as well. 

The higher primary school of both England and Ger- 
many is generally ventilated on the Plenum system. I 
am somewhat dubious as to the merits of this system. 
German teachers and many English teachers speak en- 
thusiastically in praise of it ; on the other hand many 
English teachers are strongly condemnatory. 

The English higher primary school generally possesses 
both chemical and physical laboratories, where the 
children themselves go through a course of training 
based on what is sometimes called the heuristic system, 
but which less pedantically may be called the " inventive " 
system. No such training in practical science is given 
to the German child. The German lecture theatres, 
however, are more elaborately fitted up than are the 
English. 

The boys' higher primary course in an English school 
will also have rooms specially fitted for manual training 
in wood and metal. 

A higher primary school which I recently visited pos- 
sessed a magnificent annexe entirely devoted to manual 
training. This cost £7,000, and consisted of : — 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 6 1 

1. A large shop of 60 benches fitted up for woodwork. 

2. A large shop fitted up for iron work, and containing 
1 2 vices, 2 forges (with a hand-fan blast) and anvils ; 3 
double lathes, one costing £35, the others £20 each; a 
screw-cutting machine (self-feeder). 

3. A laundry-laboratory, fitted with sinks, etc., drying 
ovens, and all the paraphernalia for this work. 

4. A cooking demonstration room, with five gas ovens 
in the demonstration table, two gas cooking stoves, and 
a very fine cooking range. 

Besides these there were two large rooms for dining. 
Here the children eat their meals after these have been 
warmed by the caretaker. 

Generally speaking, my impression is that these English 
school buildings compare fairly favourably with those of 
the German school. Our schools are better decorated, 
there is more appeal to the child's aesthetic faculty by 
means of beautiful pictures and busts. 

Finally, one word as to the state of the premises. 
German schools are always beautifully clean, and so are 
the children. These are habits which the schools them- 
selves have inculcated. The children in Germany never 
enter school with dirty feet or hands, and if a stranger 
enters their room they rise and greet him in a pleasant 
manner. These habits of courtesy, orderliness, and 
neatness are most valuable habits which it is the privilege 
of the good school, both English and German, to confer 
upon its scholars. 

Curriculum. 

Before entering into a detailed discussion of the 
curricula of these two schools, let me recall to your 
minds two statements I have already made, — first, that 



62 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

there is a philosophical basis to German education, and 
second that no practical work in science worth speaking 
of is done in German primary or higher primary schools, 
and indeed I may add in but few secondary schools 
either. Neither do we find that the girls are taught 
either cookery or laundry work, nor is manual instruction 
taken up in the German schools to anything like the 
extent that we might imagine ; for example, in the 
wealthy and progressive city of Cologne not a single 
school gives manual training a place in its curriculum. 
Indeed, the German teacher is perfectly candid ; he 
laughs at what he calls these new fads of the English 
teachers, manual training, technical education, and what 
not. Now I hope you will not misunderstand me. I 
am speaking of the average German teacher, neither 
Conservative nor Revolutionary, but the type. If 
Germany ousts England from the markets of the world 
it will not be because her technical training is better 
than ours ; in fact, I think it is not ; but because either 
her primary or secondary school, or both, are superior as 
training grounds to the corresponding English schools. 
Personally I believe that if England loses her commercial 
supremacy it will be because of her inefficient and in- 
adequate system of secondary schools. 

This neglect of the cultivation of the child's self- 
activity by the German school has led in the past to 
some very sharp criticisms by Germans themselves ; for 
example, there is a remarkably outspoken criticism by 
Dr. Riedler, of the Royal Polytechnique at Charlotten- 
burg, in the annual report of the Bureau of Education, 
U.S.A., for the year 1892, on this lack of practical train- 
ing in the German school. There can be no doubt, I 
think, that this criticism is a just one, from oiir point of 
view, yet it is equally certain that the vast majority of 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 63 

German secondary teachers are decidedly opposed to it, 
and I freely admit that there is no body of men in the 
world more competent to express an opinion on such a 
matter than the secondary teachers of Germany. 

The curriculum of the German primary school illus- 
trates what I said was characteristic of German educa- 
tion, namely, its philosophical basis. Subjects of a 
purely commercial or technical character hitherto have 
found no place in the curriculum of the German primary 
school. The function of this school is, it is considered, 
to train citizens, not craftsmen ; to such an extent is this 
principle carried that such subjects even as needlework, 
cookery and laundry work have hitherto received but 
scant treatment in the German primary school. How- 
ever, the work of the philosopher is being modified by 
necessity. The factory in Germany, as it has done in 
England, is killing the arts of the home, and the mother's 
place is being taken by the teacher, so that in the large 
cities these subjects are forcing their way into the school 
curriculum. 

Germany is essentially a land of special schools for dif- 
erent classes of society, and therefore a none too safe guide 
for us. Thus on the much-debated matter of commercial 
education we find that the Germans do not attempt to 
teach commercial subjects in the primary school. The 
German commercial school is essentially a continuation 
school for the class that use the Realschule ; and the 
curriculum differs from that of the Realschule only in 
laying still greater emphasis on modern languages and 
commercial subjects. It is, in fact, a special school for 
the sons of commercial men and a labourer's or work- 
man's son has practically little chance of entering it. It 
is a special school, but in no sense a school for specialists. 
The linguistic training is sound and philosophical, and 



64 SCHOOT.S AT HOME AND ABROAD 

pedagogically is, I venture to think, a basis of as good a 
training as that of the English pubHc school with its 
training" in Latin and Greek. Such commercial schools 
turn out, not clerks with certain technical accomplish- 
ments, but men who are fitted to take the part of leaders 
in the commercial world. The Germans educate their 
officers of commerce as thoroughly as their ofificers of 
the army, and the private in both receives a modicum 
of sound education which makes him, as a rule, a good 
citizen, but not an ambitious man. 

The subjects of instruction in the German primary 
school are : Religion, German (reading, writing, spelling, 
and speaking), arithmetic, and the elements of geometry, 
drawing, history, geography, elementary science, drill or 
gymnastics for the boys, needlework for the girls, and 
singing ; in fact the same subjects as are required for the 
English school by the new Code. In some of the 
largest German town schools they will also include a 
modern language, mathematics, shorthand, and domestic 
economy; but such schools are, I think, largely class 
schools and not ordinary Volksschulen. 

The hours of attendance at school in Germany vary 
somewhat for different ages and localities, but are gener- 
ally in summer, 8-12, 8-1,8-2; and in winter 9-1,9-2, 
9-3, according to the class. 

The children are dismissed according to the class, ^.^., 
the two lower classes spend 20 to 22 hours per week in 
school, the third class 28 hours, and the fourth and fifth 
32 hours per week. There is no complete holiday like 
our Saturday or the French Thursday, but, generally, 
Wednesday and Saturday afternoons are free. Each 
•' lesson is 50 minutes long, followed by an interval often 
minutes. Set against this programme of 32 hours weekly 
that of the best English schools of 27^ hours weekly. 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 6 = 



Here are two tables showing the number of hours per 

week devoted to each subject in each grade of the 

schools of the kingdom of Prussia : — ■ 

One Class School (One Teacher). 

c u- .. Elem. 

Subject. ^ , 

■' Grade 

Religion 4 

German 11 

Mathematics 4 

Drawing 

Science 

Singing i 

History 

Geography 

Gymnastics (bo}'s) \ 
Needlework (girls) J 



Middle 
Grade. 

5 
10 

4 
I 

2 
2 
2 
2 



Upper 
Grade. 

5 



Total 21 



30 



30 



Schools of More Than One Class. 



Elem. 
Grade. 



Subject. 

Religion 4 

German 11 

Arithmetic 4 

Geometry 

Drawing 

Science 

History 

Geography 

Singing 

Gymnastics 

Needlework 



:} 



Middle 
Grade. 



Upper 
Grade. 



Total 22 



28 



32 



66 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND A];ROAD 

Incidentally, let me note here how similar in many- 
respects the difficulties of German and English educa- 
tion are. The Germans have a very serious religious 
difficulty, which however is found mainly outside — not 
inside — the school. Then you have classes too large fo r 
teachers ; it is no uncommon thing to find classes of 
70 or 80 in charge of one teacher. In one case I came 
across a village school of over 90 children of all ages, 
from 6 to 14, in charge of one master, with not even a 
monitor or Art. 68 to help. In other parts of Germany 
you will find the half-time system almost as flourishing 
as even in Lancashire, and teachers will tell you how 
the farmers will do everything to keep the children at 
home. Children are worked as often, and I believe as 
hard, out of school hours in Germany as they are in 
England, and relapse into the ignorance of pre-school 
days in the country in Germany as quickly or even 
more quickly than they do with us. There is a dark 
side to the bright page of German education just as 
there is to that of English education. The school 
is no more popular in some parts of rural Germany 
than it is in some parts of rural England, and 
it is the part of the philosopher to recognise and to 
account for this strange fact.* My own impression is 
that until a profound revolution of curriculum takes place 
this lack of sympathy will exist. The German rural 
school has several advantages over its English rival; 
first its teacher has no great inducement to leave for the 
town school ; being a civil servant, his salary is taken 

* In South Germany it is decreed that whenever the Thermometer 
reaches 25 deg. C. (/.<?., 81^ Fahrenheit) before 10.30 a.m. there 
shall be no afternoon school. This is really a concession to the 
farmer, who may thus legally employ his children at the time of 
year when their services aie most needed. 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 6"] 

altogether, nearly the same whether he teach in town or 
country; further, he has absolute security of tenure. 

I will now briefly review the methods in the German 
school. In teaching the mother tongue very great care 
is taken in speaking to eliminate local peculiarities of 
dialect. The German teacher will make the child repeat 
a word over and over again until the clear natural 
enunciation has been obtained. 

As every teacher throughout Germany has, as a 
rule, one class-room entirely devoted to his own use 
it is unnecessary for him to shout. The German 
teacher always speaks in a natural low conversational 
tone, and he does not talk much. He is content to 
suppress himself, but he insists upon his pupils speaking 
much and loudly. The answers are always in com- 
plete sentence form ; indeed this has been carried to 
extremes, and has led to a good deal of formalism 
in the instruction. 

I have seen this same careful cultivation of clear 
enunciation in many English schools, but on the whole 
it is, I think, more general in Germany than in England. 
The teaching of composition is much the same in both 
English and German schools, and too often is, I fear, 
merely an exercise in memory rather than a form of 
expression on the part of the child itself However, 
there are many brilliant exceptions, and I have essays 
here by boys in a London Board School which, in some 
respects, are almost equal to the best essays written in 
German schools. The German child has memorised a 
great deal of the best of German literature which reacts 
powerfully on his own composition. The German 
school reader is a book of about 600 pages, graduated to 
suit children from the ages of 7 to 14, and contains the 
very finest pieces in German literature, 



68 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

This book is the centre of instruction in the primary 
school. The composition grows out of it, the history is 
built upon it, and the geograph}' and nature study are 
amplified and consolidated therein. In reading there is 
not so much attention paid to what I have called 
rhetorical embellishments as in English schools. In- 
deed, it is often rather sing-song in character, but it is 
always beautifully clear, the enunciation is cultivated 
with extreme care, and the result is on the whole very 
satisfactory. One does not see much parsing, but 
analysis is largely used, and the sentences taken for 
these exercises are generally those of the reader, 
particularly those of a religious or patriotic character. 
The same lack of animation but careful cultivation of 
vocables is to be observed in the lessons in recitation. 
In the big town schools, however, magnificent renderings 
of famous German poems were heard ; the German boy 
is not so self-conscious as the English boy, and will 
throw himself without reserve into the pathos of a fine 
poem. In the German singing, too, there is sometimes 
a lack of vivacity and firmness, and I do not think the 
study of vocal music is carried on to anything like the 
same extent in the German as in the English school. 

The music of the best Welsh or Yorkshire school is, 
I believe, superior to that of the German school. The 
Welsh children's voices are naturally finer, and those of 
Yorkshire better trained, than the voices of German 
children. I have been delighted and surprised at the 
high pitch to which the training in vocal music is carried 
in the North of England schools. I have heard some of 
the choruses from "Judas Maccabaeus " and also Bishop's 
" Tramp, Tramp," sung with magnificent effect by 500 
children in a Yorkshire school recentl}% whilst in 
another school the vocal exercises were, I think superior 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 69 

to anything I had previously heard. Some of these 
schools also possessed admirable string bands. 

In the teaching of geography and history considerable 
variety is found in German schools. In all schools the 
geography begins with a study of the school district. 
Maps are rolled up when they are not in use. 

In the large town schools cause and effect is con- 
tinually developed, and the whole of the geography is 
ultimately based upon experience. German school maps 
and atlases are much superior to ours ; they devote more 
attention to physical than political geography, and the 
German cartographer does not attempt to include too 
much in his map. [On the other hand, the apparatus 
in the best English schools is more varied and in- 
structive ; beautiful pictures of famous places and build- 
ings, contour models, and trays for sand modelling are as 
conspicuous by their presence in the English as they are 
by their absence in the German primary school. But 
it must be pointed out that the little books of defini- 
tions, etc., occasionally found in some English schools 
are never seen in German schools. 

History in the German schools, is based mainly upon 
the material in the reader, and is often of a distinctly 
stereotyped character. In the English shools, history 
has hitherto been conspicuous by its absence. 

The writing in German schools, both Roman and 
German characters, is invariably well done. The 
German teacher will tell his visitor : " We expect our 
pupils to write well always, not sometimes." In the 
lowest class drawing is often taken instead of writing. 

In arithmetic the work is practically all oral and on 
the blackboard, very rarely indeed on books or slates. 
The decimal system helps them considerably. The 
teacher gives out a problem orally, and calls a boy up to 



;70 SCHOOLS At HOME AND Al'.UOAI) 

state it on the blackboard. This done, another boy is 
called up to work it. He states the reason for each step 
as he proceeds, the class follows and criticises ; the 
teacher is simply the referee, called in to settle disputed 
points or to assist out of difficulties. These German 
teachers avoid that great fault of telling too much ; they 
are content to suppress themselves. Arithmetic is begun 
by the six-year-old children in working problems of this 
kind : — 

- X = -! X 

IxxxJ 



.XX 

loooj 1.00 



Speaking of German schools, Matthew Arnold said ; 
" In the teaching of arithmetic, geometry and natural 
science, I was particularly struck with the patience, the 
clinging to oral question and answer, the avoidance of 
over-hurry, the being content to advance slowly, the 
securing of the ground." He finds himself he tells us, 
jotting down in his notebook continually : " These 
children are human." 

The drawing in German primary schools is generally 
done on chequered paper, and can hardly be looked upon 
as a means of expression in the study of form. The 
art study in the primary school should be a training in 
the expression of form, and it is a mistake to suppose 
that the only possible means of expression open to a child 
is through pencil and paper. In our best English primary 
schools form expression is taught not only by drawing 
but also by clay-modelling, brush-work, painting from 
nature, free arm work, cardboard work, and many 
another admirable means. 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS (iERMAN RIVAL 7 1 

The drawing in German primaiy schools is very (lif- 
erent from the splendid training in design and ornament 
taught in some of our English primary schools. Such 
work in design is taught in the Fatherland, but in 
special schools, and not in the primary schools. 

In dealing with natural science and modern language 
teaching we are leaving the elementary school proper 
and entering the domain of the higher primary schools 
of England and Germany. The Girls' Mittelschulen of 
Germany are essentially primary schools, with two upper 
classes, and include in their curricula either English or 
French and a science subject. The age of the girls in 
the top classes of the Mittelschulen appears to be from 
1 6 to 17 years. No practical science is taught, nor any 
of the domestic arts. Calisthenics and gymnastics 
(including in the girls' schools fencing and jumping) are 
splendidly taught, and the calisthenics of these girls' 
schools is equalled only by that taught in the very best 
primary schools of England. The marching in both 
types of school, English and German, is magnificent, and 
the deportment of the girls admirable. 

In the teaching of elementary science, by our devotion 
to practical laboratory work and by the tendency of the 
whole of our instruction to throw the pupil upon 
his own resources, I believe we are ahead of Germany. 
The teaching in the German lecture theatre is, I think, 
superior to that in the English, the demonstration table 
is better and more elaborately fitted, and the teacher is 
perhaps more highly trained, but our faith is pinned to 
the practical work in the laboratory. We deliberately 
subordinate the lecture theatre to the laboratory, whereas 
in Germany the direct converse is true, and by that faith 
shall we, I think, be justified. 

In modern language teaching there is no doubt what- 



72 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND AT5ROAD 

ever in my mind as to the superiority of the German 
school, though I heard a lesson in French in an English 
primary school equal to any lesson heard in a German 
higher primary school. The whole of the lesson was 
given in French, and centred upon a picture, whilst the 
grammar was carefully subordinated and yet intercalated 
into the lesson. I heard an equally fine lesson a few 
days ago here at home, and I am glad to think that in 
this, as in many other features, our best schools are 
" leading the way." Such lessons are, I believe, more 
rare in English higher primary schools than they are 
in the German higher primary school. 

What these lessons lacked was that phonetic basis upon 
which all the best modern language teaching in German 
secondary schools is built. 

However, I believe that even in this subject, admittedly 
the strong point in German training, we are at present 
witnessing a revolution of method in the English school, 
and that we shall in a few years compare not altogether 
unfavourably with Germany. 

In school games and athletics our rivals are far behind 
us, and the cause is mainly due to a lack of proper 
appreciation by the people of these valuable branches of 
the school curriculum. Some of the more thoughtful 
Germans are enthusiastic admirers of the English school 
games, and personally I think that our national success, 
and after all tJiat is a fact, despite all detractors, is largely 
due to those habits of restraint, co-operation, and resource 
which no academic training can ever engender so well 
as the school play-ground. 

The school games in Germany, though under the care 
of paid officials, cannot indeed be compared with the 
games of the English school. 

In a London Board School I saw five silver cups won 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 73 

by the scholars in different events, swimming, running, 
football and cricket, and 1 was much interested and 
delighted at the skill shown by the boys in a football 
match played on the asphalted playground between one 
class and another. The teacher had exercised his 
ingenuity in devising a specially-constructed cricket 
ball and football which would not " carry " too far. A 
wreath of oakleaves in a German school gymnasium was 
the prize won by the school team of five in a race of 
3,000 metres — run on the relay plan. The gymnastic 
exercises in these two schools are of an equally fine 
character, and it would be difficult for the non-expert to 
decide which is the better, though he would probably 
admit that the gymnasium of the German schools is 
much the more elaborately fitted of the two. 

Let me now say something as to discipline. In only 
about two English schools have I seen discipline similar 
to that of the German school, and those were both 
schools attended entirely by children of Polish Jews. A 
German Catholic priest once tackled me on this point, 
for I may say at once that the average German has no 
doubt whatever as to the superiority of the German 
school, and particularly of its discipline, over that of the 
English. I told him : " Your ideals are different from 
ours ; we would conserve the child's individuality, even 
at the risk of a loss of discipline." 

But as discipline pure and simple, that of the German 
school is excellent. The German child sucks in order 
and discipline with his mother's milk. It has become a 
national habit. Even the geese have acquired it. I 
remember one day seeing about 400 geese marching 
along the highway four or five abreast, with a steadiness 
that would not have disgraced the King's Guards ; and 
the sheep in Germany follow, and are not driven, by the 

5 



74 SCHOOLS AT PIOME AND ABROAD 

shepherd. It is more difficult for a German child to be 
unruly than for an English one not to be. 

Finally, I would say something of the teacher himself. 
The German teacher is very highly trained, and his 
course of training extends practically over six years. 
From 14 to 17 years of age he is a pupil of the normal 
preparatory school, and for the next three years he is a 
student at the normal college. The curriculum is not 
wide but deep, and his knowledge of the history and 
philosophy of education is very thorough and sound. 
All German teachers are philosophers, and many of 
them are to-day enthusiastic Herbartians. Consequently, 
the doctrines of apperception and interest, together with 
the formal steps, are often to be observed. A German 
teacher never begins a lesson without a preparation 
covering a recapitulation of previous steps, and complet- 
ing it by correlating the material presented with the 
material of the other portions of the curriculum. 

I believe that in no country in the world is the teach- 
ing on so sound and philosophical a basis, and I will add 
that nowhere else are the teachers so highly appreciated 
by the community and by themselves as in Germany. 
They are proud of their profession, and their country is 
proud of them ; and well may it be. I am glad to think 
that public opinion in England is rapidly reaching this 
standpoint, for until the office of teacher is looked upon 
as one of the most onerous and honourable offices in the 
community we shall suffer in some respects from a com- 
parison with such a land as Germany. 

But some German teaching is not above criticism. It 
has, so to speak, been over-developed. Teaching has 
become a fine art, and like all fine arts, there is evidence 
of formalism in it. The teaching is sometimes too stereo- 
typed in character, and that originality and that resource- 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL 75 

fulness that are characteristic of the finest teaching are 
often lacking in the German teaching of to-day.* Still 
with all this, the more I study and think about the German 
teacher the more I admire the care with which he builds 
up the new knowledge firmly upon the old, the honesty 
with which he performs his task, never allowing a sense 
of injustice or injury to interfere with the due discharge 
of his duties, the enthusiasm with which he is imbued, 
the high conception he has formed of the obligations of 
his profession, the candour with which he gives his 
opinion, and the self-respect that animates him in all his 
actions; these are traits which unite him in my mind to all 
that is best in our English teacher. I cannot dissociate 
the best English from the German teacher ; all those 
qualities which make up the fine teacher are equally 
effective on the East as the West side of the North Sea, 
and I am glad to think almost equally abundant. 

Under some of the big North of England Boards I find 
the mixed schools of 1,200 children under a master 
supplanting the separate boys' and girls' departments. 
In other cases they have a junior mixed school, under a 
master or mistress, for Standards I. and II. only (children 
of six to eight years of age). The great advantage of 
this latter plan, it seems to me, is that in such a school 
the principles of the Kindergarten may be introduced 
and the child's self-activity cultivated more fully than is at 
present done in the school for older scholars. Thus the 
lamentable break which now occurs between the infants' 
school and the school for older scholars would be 
minimised, and perhaps ultimately obviated. I do 

* Another serious defect in much German teaching is that so little 
is done to encourage resourcefulness on the part of the pupil. The 
child leaves school without having been trained to acquire know- 
ledge of himself, so he is helpless without his teacher. 



^6 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

strongly hold that something should be done in the 
lower standards to retain and extend those admirable 
occupations now taught in our infants schools. 

I have hitherto said nothing of the relationship 
between the German primary, secondary, and academic 
systems of education. There can be no doubt whatever, 
I think, that in Wales the educational ladder is much 
more complete that in Germany. The German teacher 
would, I think, be the first to admit it, and then he would 
go on to explain that he placed but little value on such a 
ladder. Germany is still a land where the caste feeling 
is very acute, and I believe it is very rare indeed to find 
examples such as are now every-day occurrences with us 
of primary scholars who have reached the highest rungs 
of the ladder and the richest prizes of life. 

I am not going to give you the German's objections to 
the educational ladder, but I will only remind you that 
the ladder is for the few, the school for the many. 

Let me sum up. You will see from this hasty com- 
parison how difficult it would be to answer such a 
question as " Which is the better, English or German 
education ? " 

I am, at any rate, convinced that I cannot answer it, 
though I was equally certain before I carefully studied 
the German system that I could answer it. 
y The real superiority of the German system is neither 
in the teaching nor the schools, but it is in that public 
spirit upon which all rational systems of education must 
rest. 

Until our people have been trained to see the 
criminality of robbing the child of his moral right to a 
good education, by keeping him from school or sending 
him to the factory too early, or working him out of 
school hours, we shall suffer. 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND ITS GERMAN RIVAL jy 

How utterly wasteful, how extravagant this system of 
absenteeism and child labour is, it is unnecessary for me 
to point out. To secure the penny to-day the English 
parent denies himself the pound to-morrow. 

Meanwhile, we must endeavour to posses our souls in 
patience, knowing as we do that time is on our side. 

Let us trust that it will not need national disaster, as 
in the case of Germany and France, to make us realise 
in full the necessity of a sound liberal training for our 
citizens. 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 

The future of the community is more intimately bound 
up with the welfare of the rural school than perhaps 
most of us imagine. Without derogating from, or in 
any way attempting to minimize the fine work done 
by, our larger and more progressive School Boards, it 
must be confessed that all this will pro\e largely 
futile if behind it there is not a sound system of rural 
education. Modern city life would soon cease were it 
not constantly renewed by fresh blood from the soil — 
from the country. These city schools must, to be 
successful, be renewed every third generation by fresh 
conscripts of the soil. 

When the fact is recognized that the country is the 
recruiting ground of the race, the source from which 
the physical vitality of the people is ultimately de- 
veloped, the full significance of this rural school problem 
will be appreciated. This problem is by no means 
peculiar to England ; it is, if anything, more acute in 
the United States, and causes much anxious thought 
in Germany. 

Too rarely is it recognized, or indeed admitted, that 
the problem of the rural school is peculiar to itself, and 
that the aim of this school is essentially different from 
that of the urban school. Yet there can be no doubt 
that the environment and the future vocation of its pupils 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 79 

should largely condition the curriculum of a school. 
When one considers that in all essential respects the 
curriculum of the rural school both in England and 
Germany has hitherto differed but little from that of 
the urban school, one sees that the admitted unpopularity 
of those rural schools is not altogether inexplicable. 
My purpose here is to sketch, as lightly as I can, two 
pictures, one, that of a good German rural school, the 
other a good English rural school. 

Some eight miles out of the fine town of Diisseldorf, 
and branching off the main road to Cologne, one finds 
oneself in a country of immense grain fields. Far as 
the eye can see stretches the golden corn rapidly 
ripening to the sickle. Scarce a farmhouse or labourer's 
cottage do we pass on our way to the village. The 
Rhinelander farmer and peasant live in the villages, 
not in isolated farms, as is generally the case in 
England. So often has this rich and beautiful province 
been devastated by passing armies that acquired in- 
stinct, so to speak, compels the Rhinelanders to live 
together for mutual comfort and protection. 

However, it has simplified one of the problems of 
the rural school to a very large extent. Only a very 
small proportion of the pupils walk two miles or more 
to school. We push along the beautifully kept road, 
which is superior even to French roads, for both German 
and French main roads are primarily military routes. 
The trees on each side afford some shelter from the 
fierce rays of the sun. Occasionally we pass a crucifix 
or shrine, recalling to us memories of Brittany, Nor- 
mandy, and the " ould counthry." The Rhinelander is 
still to a very large extent Catholic, as his forebears 
were. It was this religious sympathy that caused him 
in old days to look to France for support against his 



8o SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

detested foe, the Prussian. Time brings its revenges, 
however. To-day the Rhinelander almost invariably 
proudly describes himself as a Prussian. It is "our 
good Prussian King," not " our good German Emperor," 
of whom we hear so much in the schools. 

Whilst we soliloquize, our good horses have carried us 
to the village, which consists of some thirty to forty 
cottages arranged on each side of the main road. The 
houses are built of small red bricks, and are very plain 
structures indeed. They are very like Dutch cottages, 
and remind us of the little houses in our " box of toys " 
of childhood's days. A couple of inns and the village 
church complete the picture. The churches hereabouts 
vary but little, but all seem to be copies of the old 
Apostolic Chuich at Cologne. 

It is remarkable what a similarity to type there is in 
the different provinces of the Fatherland. Each church 
is very much like every other church, each country 
school is very similar to every other country school, 
and each country teacher very much like every other 
country teacher in the province. Individuality has 
either exhausted itself or has been effectually curbed. 

Next to the church, the most pretentious building in 
the village is the school. This school which we have 
come to see is practically a new building. We knock 
at the door, and, after some hesitation by the teacher, 
we are invited to enter. However, after perusing our 
credentials and admiring the signatures on the docu- 
ments, his manner becomes more conciliatory and his 
reserve gradually disappears. Neither strangers nor 
even parents are allowed to visit these public schools 
without permission from the proper authority ; indeed, 
a parent who would attempt to do such a thing would 
be fined. 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 8 1 

It is evidently a matter of considerable difficulty for 
our friend to get over his intense astonishment at 
finding visitors from England without black coat or 
hat, " and on bicycles too ! Well, these English are an 
odd people ! " He confesses afterwards that it has 
been a somewhat painful shock to him. However, his 
astonishment does not seriously disturb his equanimity. 
He speaks with a certain quiet dignity of manner, 
answers our questions without hesitation or arriere 
pensh, gives his views with firmness and conviction, 
but without that arrogance so liable to be developed in 
such surroundings as his. 

We notice how few boys there are in proportion to the 
girls, and ask him if this difference in birth-rate can be 
accounted for. "Ach!" laughs he, "das ist eine alte 
Geschichte." 

There are twenty children here to-day, of all ages 
from six to fourteen. Quiet, fair-haired children they 
are, with that serious look that most German children 
have. The serious nature of life's duties is a lesson 
quickly learnt and never forgotten. There are no 
bonny red cheeks and wilful eyes that one sees in 
merry England, nor that irrepressible restiveness so 
characteristic of our children. The master asks us 
what we would like to see and hear, and in reply we 
say that we wish to see him and his children go on just 
as usual. He readily falls in with our wishes, and so 
do the children. They are evidently glad to see us. 
The official is not made such a bogey of here as at 
home. We were lunching in the village inn a few days 
ago, and chatting with us were the children of the land- 
lord. They knew we were visitors from England who 
had been to see the Catholic school near at hand. 
These children were evidently Protestant, for one of 



82 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

them, after much hesitation, asked us, " And you will 
come to see our school, too — will you not ? " It was 
evidently a bitter disappointment to her and her 
sisters when we told them we could not. 

To return : whilst the master is giving an oral lesson 
to his top grade, let us glance around the school. The 
doors by which we enter are those immense and 
ponderous double doors seen only on the Continent. 
Through these w^e enter a spacious entrance hall, from 
which a wide staircase runs up to the master's house, 
which forms the second storey of the building. 
Around the hall are hat-pegs and umbrella-stands. 
All is in perfect order and beautifully clean. From the 
hall we enter the only class-room, where we find the 
master and pupils busy at work. On ledges here and 
there flowers are growirig. The walls are coloured 
light green. No pictures, but portraits of the three 
Emperors, adorn the walls. The room strikes one as 
being bare. A plan of the school district is framed in 
a glass case and suspended on the wall. The maps, 
which we at home generally use to adorn the walls of 
the room, are kept rolled up when not in use, as the 
teacher thinks they are too distracting. Besides maps, 
the master showed us a portfolio full of coloured 
pictures specially designed for object and language 
lessons. These cost one shilling each. 

The room is well lighted from one side, i.e., to the 
left of the pupils. Much more attention is paid to 
hygienic matters in school buildings in Germany now 
than used to be. All the windows are casement 
windows, and to-day are wide open, so that the atmo- 
sphere of the room is very pleasant and agreeable. 
But the windows, we observe, are double, so as to keep 
out the bitter cold of winter. " What of the ventilation, 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 83 

then ? " we ask, and the master's shrug is very expres- 
sive. There are no extractors or Tobin's tubes such as 
we are accustomed to find at home ; so that we fear 
the room must, at any rate, become "stuffy" when the 
windows are hermetically sealed as in winter-time. 
On one side of the room is fixed a fine stove. The 
thermometer is carefully watched in these schools so 
that the temperature, at any rate, may be kept fairly 
equable. There are three sizes of desks, to suit 
children of different ages. These are heavy and solid, 
but convenient and fitted with backs. The children 
can sit in them without unduly straining their backs or 
their eyes. The ink-wells are covered to keep out the 
dust. It is interesting to note that these ink-wells are 
always carefully covered up when not in use ; in Eng- 
land the cover, even when it is provided, is rarely used. 

Everything in this German school is clean and in 
good order. The master tells us that the school is 
washed weekly. The school has no lavatory accommoda- 
tion excepting the pump in the playground, and, as far 
as we can see, the necessity for it is not felt. The 
children are always sent to school by the parents quite 
clean, and the mild games of these children do not, like 
those of our children, necessitate frequent hand-washing. 
The State will apparently do nothing that may tend to 
weaken the sense of parental obligation. There is a 
basket in the room where all waste paper is deposited. 

The greater portion of the work is done on slates, 
and then occasionally, after an exercise has been cor- 
rected by the teacher, it is copied into the child's 
exercise book. The writing on slates is invariably 
very good. Correct position of body is attended to. 
We saw many of these books containing exercises in 
composition, the teaching of which is largely based on 



84 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the contents of the school reader. There were few 
exercises showing initiative or originaHty. Some 
exercises in arithmetic were also noticed. All the 
work in these books is extremely neat and well set 
out ; but such books are no basis of comparison with 
the exercise books of English children, which latter 
contain generally the original exercises worked by the 
pupil. The master keeps a log book, but, instead of 
being a record of the school's doings, it is intended to 
be mainly a record of the doings of the district. The 
apparatus consists of two rather small blackboards, a 
globe, maps of the district and province, of Palestine, 
and of Germany, a ball frame, some alphabetical charts, 
a set of pictures for object and language lessons, a few 
simple models for teaching geometry, a set of historical 
charts, a song book, and a violin. The school also 
possesses a master's desk, and a small reference library 
for the master's use. 

Each pupil has in his heavy knapsack, which he 
daily carries to and fro, a reader of about five hundred 
pages, an exercise book, a text-book of arithmetic and 
geometry, a song book, a note book, and a slate and 
pencil. These, which cost altogether between four and 
five shillings, each pupil provides for himself If the 
parents are too poor, then the school district must pro- 
vide these, as well as clothes and food, for the children 
needing them.* 

It is a pretty sight to see these children trudging to 
school with their wooden sabots, and the girls with bare 
heads and pig-tails hanging down their backs. 

No text-book is used in geography and history 

* Children over twelve may, on account of poverty, be excused 
further attendance at school, but must in such cases attend the 
Sunday continuation school. 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 85 

teaching, but the older children often have atlases. We 
saw plans of the school and playground drawn on 
slates. German children begin geography at nine, and 
their knowledge of other lands than Germany is not 
extensive even when they leave school. 

The teacher is skilful and quiet. He has divided 
his little school into three sections, and the time-table 
is so drawn out that an oral lesson to one is simultaneous 
with silent lessons to the other sections. This after- 
noon, soon after our entry, the master begins with his 
lowest class. He asks them a few questions in number, 
and then proceeds to write on the blackboard a series 
of simple problems, and the little people immediately 
take out their slates and begin to busy themselves with 
these. He takes the top class in a geography lesson, 
to which the middle class sit and listen without taking 
any active part therein. It is wonderful how quiet and 
orderly these children can be without apparently any 
effort on their or their teacher's part. German children 
are exceedingly easy to manage, and take much less 
out of their teacher than do our children. There is a 
pleasant atmosphere of home in this little school. The 
geography lesson is entirely oral. The teacher speaks 
very quietly and clearly. However, the children are 
made to speak very loudly. This lesson is recapitula- 
tory. The answers of the children are distinctly 
formal and set. An answer not given in a certain form 
is not accepted. Evidently memory is cultivated, and 
the work is so often repeated that the children un- 
doubtedly acquire a considerable number of facts ; but 
whether the ideas are the teacher's or whose it is 
difficult to say. They are certainly not the children's. 
However, the method is thorough. The instruction is 
largely based on map-reading, but then this is done by 



86 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the teacher, not the pupil. Of the history lesson which 
followed much the same remarks may be made. The 
matter, except that, like most national history, it was 
somewhat biassed, was sound, interesting, and instruct- 
ive, but the same formal answers were again required^ 
and one could see that the child was repeating not his 
own ideas so much as those of the teacher or the 
■' School Reader." The self-activity and experience of 
the child were not sufficiently cultivated and appealed 
to. The child's self-resource and reliance were being 
effectually scotched, rather than cultivated, by this 
system of training. He was not being trained to stand 
alone. 

Then we heard a part song which was very prettily 
rendered, the teacher accompanying on his violin. The 
voices were sweet and well balanced. After that we 
had a recitation by the older scholars, which was 
rather sing-song in character, but the words were 
beautifully clear, and a certain amount of subdued 
feeling was evident. Country children at home gener- 
ally recite in this sing-song wa}^ 

After that a woman from the village came in to take 
the girls in needlework. We saw some of the needle- 
work done by the girls, and it seemed to us inferior to 
what our girls at home do. It was mainly knitting and 
" samplers." There was less done, and the quality of 
what was done was not high. Two hours a week are 
spent at needlework, and one at drawing of a simple 
nature. Whilst the girls are at needlework the boys 
are taken in gymnastics by the master in the play- 
ground. These exercises consisted of marching, running, 
jumping, and drilling. Then there were exercises on 
the horizontal and parallel bars, and the whole con- 
cluded by a number of games which were very similar 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 87 

to those played by our children at home. The play- 
ground is ample, and covered partly with grass and 
partly with gravel, and edged by trees, which afford a 
very pleasant and indeed necessary shade to-day. 

The master told us his children were extremely 
regular, and absences, except for illness, were unknown. 
These children, too, are always punctual. The children 
come to school regularly, not so much, perhaps, because 
either children or parents love school much better than 
in England, but because the law is stringent and rigidly 
anforced, and because they are a law-abiding people. 
Further, the old-world idea of the State as the bene- 
ficent parent is still potent in Germany. 

The German rural teachers have grievances, like 
other teachers, and some of them have eloquent but 
embittered tongues. The full torrent of scorn is some- 
times poured upon the local pastor or priest, who is a 
kind of school correspondent and inspector combined. 
We were told, sometimes, how objectionable he can 
make himself at the annual promotion and classification 
of pupils, particularly if the teacher is not as loyal and 
zealous a son of Mother Church as his pastor thinks 
he should be. " He will believe all the old wives of the 
village rather than me," one teacher asserted ; and 
another, " Oh, yes, he helps on my assistant women 
teachers, because, you know, women go to church 
oftener than we men do." At another school we found 
that the local pastor had called in and dismissed a class 
without consulting the head master, much to the 
chagrin of the latter. The children often come to 
school at 8 a.m., weary after the early church service 
held at 7 a.m., so we were told. 

We inquired of our friend if he knew when he might 
expect the Government inspector. " No," he chuckled ; 



88 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

" if I did, I should take the horse out and put him 
through his paces." We were telHng him of the schools 
we had seen and hoped to see. Said he, " It is hardly 
necessary : when you have seen one rural school, you 
have seen all " — a remark which I believe is largely true. 

After school was over, he insisted upon our coming 
upstairs to his house. He called his wife in, but did 
not introduce us, nor vouchsafe to her any information 
as to who we were. He simply asked for wine and 
cigars. The house was beautifully kept and well 
furnished, with a piano, &c. All these German teachers, 
be it remembered, are civil servants of assured status 
and pension. * A garden for the master's use must 
always be provided by the local managers. 

The German housewife is very like our mothers were 
twenty-five years ago, even to their weakness for anti- 
macassars ; an unobtrusive sense of fealty and duty and 
a pride in her house-wifery are her characteristics. We 
spent a most pleasant hour with our friend. He was a 
well read man, and was learning English. His ideal, 
almost his one ambition in life, was — well, what think 
you? Simply to save enough money to be able some 
day to go to London and enter the British Museum. 
But it is hard work, and requires a long time to save 
that much out of a German schoolmaster's salary. 
However, he was hopeful. He had all the German's 
fine sense of patriotism and of the high calling of his 

* Although the German teacher is a State servant, yet he is 
generally engaged by the local managers, who also pay the greater 
part of his salary. The State fixes a minimum salary and pension, as 
well as the conditions of engagement. The sources of a German 
rural teacher's salary are often many and various. Dr. Russell 
mentions a case where the teacher obtains his salary from eighteen 
different sources ! 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 89 

country. He was under the impression that all our 
primary schools were under School Boards and un- 
denominational, and that his troubles were peculiar. 
He expatiated, too, on what he called our splendid 
system of continuation schools, by which he evidently 
meant not so much our evening schools as the work of 
the Polytechnic, University Extension, and County 
Council. He was very bitter about the apparent futility 
of rural education. He said that, after all the trouble 
and care which he had spent upon them, his brightest 
as well as his dullest children soon after they leave 
school relapse into an ignorance as profound almost as 
that from which school rescued them. They never read 
a good book, and rarely even a newspaper. Of course 
the English rural teacher will tell you much the same 
thing ; though in Wales the inauguration of rural 
intermediate schools has considerably modified this 
state of things. How far this state of things is due to 
the curriculum and methods of teaching adopted cannot 
now be discussed. We inquired of him as to the home 
lessons set to the children. He told us all were given 
tasks to do at home which need not take more than 
half an hour as a rule. Still, he admitted that the hours 
are too long for the children. Even on half-holidays 
the children have to help on the farm ; so that these 
school holidays are no holiday for the country 
children. 

Let us now look at the other picture —a good English 
country school. The school was built about twenty-five 
years ago, and its architecture, though pretty, and 
combining effectively with that of the neighbouring 
church, is not that best suited for the purposes of a 
school. Too often, indeed, our rural schools have too 
many parts to play in life. However, since its erection 

6 



90 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the school has been considerably altered. A small 
class-room has been added for the use of children under 
seven years of age. A cloak-room and lavatory, too, 
have been added, and the offices brought up to date. 
The ventilation, instead of being dependent upon 
windows and chimneys, is now effected by a couple of 
Tobin's tubes and Boyle's extractors. The lavatory 
and offices are supplied with water from a covered tank 
which collects all the rain water from the roof of the 
school. This supply is generally sufficient for the needs 
of the school. Both rooms are clean and well kept. 
This work, as in Germany, is generally done by the 
master's wife. Pictures brighten up the walls. Here 
and there are suspended maps. These maps are more 
numerous than in the German schools, but I doubt if 
they are as good. Contour models, too, are hung on the 
wall, together with a plan of the school. In the infant 
room the walls are gay with the mats, drawings, and 
plaitings of the little ones. The school possesses a 
harmonium, and the children sing to note some very 
pretty school songs for us. There is little to choose 
between the singing of these two schools, though note 
singing is not taught in the usual German rural school. 
There is no great difference of proficiency, either, in the 
three R's. The drawing and needlework of the English 
school are distinctly superior ; but the discipline, as dis- 
cipline, of the German school is finer. The moral atmo- 
sphere of both schools seems equally pleasant. Certain 
little virtues, such as punctuality, cleanliness, tidiness, and 
courtesy, seem more universal in the German than in the 
English rural school. The mother tongue, too, receives 
much more attention in the German than in the English 
rural school. 

Those contour models are due to the master's 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 9I 

ingenuity and skill. With paper pulp he and his pupils 
have made models of South Wales, the British Isles, 
and of Europe. The desks are of two sizes for the 
older scholars, and one for the infants. They are new, 
and have movable seats, so that the children may stand 
in the gangway for physical exercise. There are about 
forty-five children, of whom about fifteen to eighteen 
are in the infants' room. These are in charge of the 
master's wife, an old assistant teacher, with many years' 
good work behind her. The children are well fed, 
bright, and intelligent, very respectful, but, like all 
English children, somewhat restive of control. The 
children attend very punctually and regularly, particul- 
arly so for an English rural school. But what is meant 
by a good attendance ? In the German school the 
average attendance for the year would probably be well 
over 95 per cent. : but then very few of the children 
come from outside the village. But here, where the 
attendance for a year is nearly 90 per cent, many of the 
children have come over two miles to school, and that 
too through English lanes, not along German roads. 
This high regularity is mentioned just as the contour 
models were noticed, not as typical of the English rural 
school, but as typical of the resourcefulness and self-help 
of the really good English teacher. The curriculum of 
this school is closely similar to that of the German 
school, and differs in no essential respect from that of a 
town school. However, attempts are being made in a 
tentative sort of way to alter this. The master shows 
us a collection of local plants, animals, and rocks that 
he is encouraging the children to get together. Out in 
the playground, too, he shows us a piece of ground upon 
which he intends taking up cottage gardening with his 
boys. Then in the summer, school walks for nature 



92 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

talks have been inaugurated. (These have long been 
utilized in the German school.) 

In the teaching, text-books are used more, silent 
reading and home reading in the upper classes are 
developed, the arithmetical problems are generally 
solved by the boy on his exercise book or slate, the 
teacher only occasionally helping ; in geography the 
pupils have text-books, and draw maps of their own ; 
in fine, the pupil is thrown more on his own resources, 
and his work generally is more written than oral. The 
English children do not speak out so loudly, so clearly, 
or so gramatically as German children are taught to do ; 
on the other hand, the English child is more at home 
with pen and exercise book. The playground of the 
English school is divided off for the sexes — not common, 
as in Germany. The boys' playground is occupied at 
present by a cricket pitch. There is a great contrast 
between the behaviour of the children of these two 
schools in the playground. These English boys are 
rough, boisterous, and never quiet ; those German lads, 
if left to themselves, slouch about with hands in 
pockets, or casually watching one of their companions' 
antics on the horizontal bar. 

The English teacher is almost as reserved as the 
German teacher. However, he will probably tell you he 
is neither a farmer's nor a teacher's son, as is so often 
the case in Germany. Occasionally he will speak 
bitterly of his position — no intellectual society, no 
assured social status, and, as yet, no real security of 
tenure. He, too, like his German colleague, sometimes 
complains of the pinch of the odium theologicuNi. Occa- 
sionally, however, he is merely a disappointed man out of 
touch with his surroundings. In other cases you will find 
a man thoroughly in touch with all the life around him, a 



TWO COUNTRY SCHOOLS 93 

leader in all social movements, respected and beloved 
by all. By considerable self-sacrifice he is giving his 
children an education, sometimes secondary or even 
academic, far superior to that which he had to be 
content with. But even in these cases the respect is 
paid to the man, not to him as teacher. Germany is 
far ahead ot us in the respect she gives her teachers, 
and until we reach the same level we shall suffer by a 
comparison. 

The difficulties of these two schools are much the 
same, and need no amplifying here. Country children 
are, I believe, worked just as hard out of school in 
Germany as in England,* and the problem of under- 
staffing is more acute in Germany, owing to the re- 
luctance of the authorities to employ unqualified or 
partially qualified persons as assistant teachers. 



* This statement is limited to country children. In towns the 
law interferes, for it is unlawful for children of school age to ply 
goods for sale or to beg in the streets, or to take part in dramatic 
performances. 



THE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING. 

Life is a series of actions and reactions between man 
and his environment. Education is the process of train- 
ing the child to responsiveness, to the power of reacting 
on his physical and moral environment. A meagre 
training means failure to respond and consequently 
means pain and non-success in life. Moral and physical 
pain is only another term for lack of harmony, a dis- 
cordance between man and his world. The perfect life 
is that in which there is a sweet unison between these 
two, man and his environment. This power of respon- 
siveness is entirely a matter of training. Lack of this 
power is due to imperfect training. 

Ignorance is the crime of which nature is least tolerant. 
She ruthlessly destroys the ignorant and unskilled. 

Moreover the more automatic these reactions become 
the happier is life. The highly skilled organism packs 
away as into an automatic machine most of the routines 
and trivialities of life, reserving to itself a surplus of 
energy to deal with the reactions that are peculiar, 
occasional, and momentous. The tendency in the evolu- 
tion of life seems to be gradually to pack even these 
latter into the automatic machine. 

To train sensitive responsive organisms is the work of 
the teacher. 

But this environment, this world in which the child 
and man live is made up of two elements — Nature and 



THE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING 95 

Man. Life then indeed is nothing more than a series of 
equations between the ego and the world. To develop 
responsiveness to these two elements of the environment 
is the purpose of education. This responsiveness 
must be developed, so that the child may be in 
perfect harmony with his world, and his inherent power 
of judgment be turned to right judgment. 

True education is that which develops the child's 
moral and physical attributes. Its only purpose is the 
building of character. Character is neither moulded by 
nor proportioned to the proficiency in any formal studies, 
say the three Rs, but is by the two culture elements of 
the curriculum viz : — Nature-Study and Man-Study (in- 
cluding in this latter, language, geography, and history) 

The relative value of these two essential elements 
varies however at different periods of a child's life. The 
value of Nature Study predominates in the earlier years 
of school life, whilst the value of the humanities enhances 
with the growing years of the pupil. Up to about the 
age of nine the child's environment is mainly physical 
and it is largely a waste of energy to endeavour to 
cultivate before that year the moral side of child nature 
by means of humanistic studies. 

In the German School practically no history nor 
geography is taught before this age, whereas a form of 
Nature Study forms a prominent part of the course for 
six year old children. It is these earlier years that the 
German Teacher utilises for overcoming the purely 
mechanical difficulties of the formal studies. There can 
be no doubt that these formal studies have become the 
tyrants of our school and the fetish of the teacher. They 
monopolise the time of our schools. We should make 
the training in these formal studies less extensive and 
more intensive. If these studies were left severely alone 



96 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

until the child is, say, eight years of age then these 
mechanical difficulties could readily be overcome in 
probably two years, were sane methods used ; and the 
culture studies could then be continued by the pupil with 
these necessary weapons in his hands. 

Nature Study then is the most essential element in 
the primary school curriculum. It is in truth the one 
indispensable. Around it should the other elements of 
the course group themselves. They are the incidentals, 
it alone in these early years is fundamental. And it is 
only as a fundamental that its efficacy is realised ; as an 
incidental it is manifestly useless. 

Nature Study must not be taught in our primary 
schools because it will make nature attractive to children, 
nor because of its supposed " scientific " method nor even 
because of its power of cultivating the observing and 
reasoning faculties of children, but because the school is 
a training ground for the growth of character and such 
a training consists in placing the child en rapport with 
his environment. 

Having discussed this fundamental element of the 
curriculum, we may now observe hov/ far our schools of 
to-day are from fulfilling this function and realising our 
ideal. By a servile devotion to the formal studies, by 
the intensely literary character of the school training 
and by its consequent warping of the self-activity and 
individuality of the child, the modern school has often 
earned the contempt of men who, by instinct only, 
feel the futility of modern systems of education. 

To those who would judge of this matter I would say: 
Visit any one of the Infant schools where Nature Study 
occupies its proper sphere in the curriculum, and then 
one of the many schools for older children where the 
predominance of the three Rs is unquestioned. 



THE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING 9/ 

Despite the many difficulties of the former school with 
its large classes and inadequate equipment of its teachers, 
there is evident a sprightly vivacity, a whole-hearted 
enthusiasm, and a responsive sympathy between teacher 
and child which together produce a most pleasant effect 
on the visitor. To visit such a school is to many of us 
an education. And the secret of it all is largely due to 
the overthrow of the tyranny of the formal studies and 
enthroning in place thereof nature and naturalness. 

We want more sunlight in our schools. We need 
more life there. Our schools to-day are the direct 
descendants of the mediaeval monastic and conventual 
school, and clinging to them are many of the prejudices 
of those old world institutions. Nothing was more 
repugnant to those schools than life. The world was 
the object of obloquy and contumely. The ideal of such 
schools was asceticism. That it was necessary to kill 
the man so as to develop the angel was the belief of 
this mediaeval scholasticism. However the world has 
outgrown this gloomy faith. Has the school altogether 
done so ? 

We, however, recognise that these after all are relics 
and at that not beautiful. We must clear our schools of 
these mediaeval attitudes. Our schools we think should 
be full to the brim with life. Nature the despised of the 
cloister must be enthroned as Queen in our schools and 
in our children's hearts. They must learn to love her 
every mood. They are her children and she compels 
their love. But, love, to be true, postulates knowledge. 
So it becomes that an intimate close communion with 
nature is the one essential for full rich life. Further, let 
us beware of making nature repugnant to children by 
endeavouring to teach them nature knowledge by the 
same methods that we would adopt to teach young men 



98 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

and women. Measuring and weighing are admirable 
means of training young people in the scientific method 
but they are not suited for introducing little children to 
their mother nature. These, like the pretty butterflies 
they are, love to fly hither and thither as the sweet scent 
or the sweeter honey attracts them ; they will have no 
method in their wanderings and yours will only kill them. 

They are not going to be scientific savants — only 
men and women. The " inventive " system, admirable 
as it is, has a place, but that place is not just here. 

On the contrary their studies shall be as changeable 
as the seasons. With them we will study the flowers of 
the field, hedge, and garden, the animals that are our 
busy companions in life, and the stones and pebbles so 
mute yet so eloquent that lie at our feet. The babbling 
brook will tell them tales, and the weather worn rocks 
whisper secrets of long ago. Often too, we will wander 
together far from the crowded class room and noisy 
playground up the back of some giant crag or by the 
side of some placid stream. The seasons too will be a 
guide to us in selecting our topics. We will interest our 
pupils in the ever changing panorama of life ; they shall 
see the cycle of change, and how yesterday differs from 
to-day and both from to-morrow. 

Records will they keep of when the first lamb was 
seen, and where, and by whom. The appearance of the 
snowdrop, the cuckoo, and the ploughman too will 
interest them and be eagerly recorded. 

In the spring we shall see the resurrection of all things, 
the bright gladsomeness of life, the growing plumage of 
birds, and their fuller song. We shall call the children's 
attention to the buds of the trees such as the beech, 
willow, poplar, and chestnut. They will see how care- 
fully protected and nourished by the parent these other 



THE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING 99 

children are and the significance of this will not be lost 
on them. 

The life history of the seed too will interest them. 
They shall plant in boxes in the school room or better 
still in beds in the school garden, seeds of various kinds 
and nourish them with their own tiny hands. Nothing 
interests children more than this. Amongst our bird 
friends the robin and blackbird will call for observation 
and the coming of the swallow and cuckoo will serve for 
many a sweet tale of these travellers. Here that admir- 
able story " The Crane Express " in Miss Poulsson's book 
will be utilised. The changing forms of the clouds will 
excite the admiration and interest of our pupils. There 
will be no need in such lessons as these to maintain 
discipline — interest will do more than that. 

In the summer months we shall have a prodigal's 
wealth at our disposal. 

The sun, moon, and stars, the clear blue sky and the 
fleecy clouds, the roseate tints of dawn and the gorgeous 
colouring of sunset will all call forth the curiosity of the 
child. Curiosity is the most effective weapon in the 
teacher's armoury. 

A chart of weather observations will be kept and the 
children taught to record the daily reading of the ther- 
mometer and barometer. 

The summer moreover affords us many an opportunity 
of taking our children on country walks for nature talks. 
How delightful and how invaluable these class excursions 
are, only those of us who have tried them realise. 

We will get our pupils to make collections of natural 
objects; a museum for each child collected by himself 
and in each classroom a small library where the children 
may find helpful and stimulating literature. 

Leaves, grasses and ferns pressed and fixed in old 

' LofC. 



lOO SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

exercise books — or fixed on cardboard and suspended on 
the classroom wall will stimulate the interest and heighten 
the zeal of the collector. 

In the autumn again the dying of nature, the beautiful 
tints of the woodlands, the departure of the birds, the 
early frosts and heavy dews will all appeal to the child 
and call forth his curiosity and reasoning powers. 

" As soon as the leaves begin to fall encourage the 
children to bring beautiful ones to school, the teacher 
pressing some for the decoration of the classroom. Ask 
the children to name the trees from which the leaves 
come. Notice what tree puts on gay colours and have 
children note carefully the succession. The trees that 
wear yellow dresses may be grouped together, also those 
that wear dresses of red, purple, spotted red and yellow, 
etc. 

" Do all trees that send off their leaves dress them 
beautifully before thay go? What trees have leaves 
that shrivel up when the frosts come ? " 

Autumn bulbs, roots, and grain, will next attract 
attention. Amongst birds the crow, sparrow, and thrush, 
amongst animals the rabbit and squirrel, and many kinds 
of insects may be dealt with. Then comes winter with 
its evergreens, and the many hibernating animals would 
naturally serve as topics. Natural phenomena, too, such 
as hail, frost, and snow, with ice and its beautiful crystals 
appeal to children's interest. 

Alongside this course and as a constituent part thereof 
will proceed a course in the training of expression, 
whether that be oral or by means of pen, pencil, brush 
or modelling knife. An indispensable part of the course 
in Nature Study is this training in expression, for power 
of expression is generally commensurate with mental 
possession. The faculty with which we can express our 



THE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING lOI 

thought, whether by means of writing, of drawing, of 
painting or of modehing is a true criterion of the measure 
of our clearness of thought. Our knowledge is in- 
complete until we can give it full expression. And I 
believe that is the only art that should be taught in our 
schools. Art as a means of form expression is an indis- 
pensable and fundamental element in the training of our 
scholars, but art as an introduction to the principles of 
design or ornament has no place there. We must teach 
the principles of nature not the principles of design in 
our schools. We are training men and women, not 
artists or architects. 

One of the highest aims of our school is to develop 
resource and reliance in our pupils. This can only be 
done effectually by making the little world in which 
they move and have their being, real and intelligible to 
them. For generations we have been endeavouring to 
put another world on their backs. The only world they 
can truly realise and know is the child's world ; and our 
duty is to let them develop as God intended them to in 
this world of theirs not that world of ours. 

" We teach boys to be such men as we are. We do 
not teach them to aspire to be all they can. We do not 
give them a training as if we believed in their noble 
nature. We scarce educate their bodies, we do not train 
the eye and the hand. We exercise their understandings 
to the apprehension and comparison of some facts, to a 
skill in numbers, in words; we aim to make accountants, 
attorneys, engineers, but not to make able, earnest, great- 
hearted men. The great object of education should be 
commensurate with the object of life. It should be a 
moral one, to teach self trust, to inspire the useful man 
with an interest in himself, with a curiosity touching his 
own nature, to acquaint him with the resources of his 



102 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

mind, and to teach him all there is in all his strength, 
and to inflame him with a piety toward the grand mind 
in which he lives." (Emerson.) 

Such a course in the study of nature is the only means 
of placing the child en rapport with his environment 
Thus his whole being vibrates in harmony with the world 
around him and becomes responsive to every modifica- 
tion of his natural environment. His character is com- 
pleted by the training in the human studies^ such as 
history. It is the purpose of this latter training to make 
intelligible the human society in which the child lives. 
He learns thereby the mutual obligations of the units of 
a social community. History explains the present to 
the child through the past. The child learns by a series 
of vivid and real object lessons the obligations and 
purposes of life. 

He realises by such a training his place in the family 
and in the State and the duties which his position entails. 
Such a training develops the moral side ; he learns by 
actual example, by concrete instances, what heroism and 
manhood means, and what cowardice and meanness of 
spirit engenders. 

Such a complete course of study as we have discussed 
implies a solidarity of curriculum. 

This unity in the primary school curriculum can only 
be secured by placing Nature Study as the foundation 
stone. The real centre indeed is the child himself. 

School training may be said to be, in truth, an organis- 
ing of experience. The teacher's duty in an ideal school is 
a passive not an active duty. To enable the child to 
organise and realise his experience, and not to endeavour 
to provide experience for the child, is the only duty of 
the true trainer. By thus assisting the child to make 
his little circle of experience real and intelligible the 



THE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING IO3 

teacher is training his pupil in power — in usable power 
which is the only power that is of value. It is the 
power of doing not of knowing that is of any value in 
this world ; with this developed power the child himself 
will widen his experience, and extend his world of real 
knowledge. 

This the child will do in many ways ; by travel, by 
observation, and above all by reading. Life — real life — 
true growth, is but an increasing the radius of our circle 
of experience. Some folks' circles never grow larger, yet 
they boast of the length of their experience. In truth 
experience must be measured in square not long measure. 

If it were clearly recognised that school is primarily 
a place for the organisation of experience, a considerable 
revolution in methods and ideals would be effected. The 
vital importance of clarifying children's ideas, the folly 
of postulating in children the experience of men, the 
necessity of dealing with real things and of cultivating 
in children not an extensive but a definite vocabulary 
commensurate with their experience, would at once be 
recognised. The wisdom too of hastening slowly would 
be granted. The utter futility of extending a child's 
vocabulary without widening his experience would be 
seen. 

A Yorkshire teacher once showed me a list of very 
difficult words that he gave his boys to take home 
nightly — not so much for spelling purposes, but to 
extend their vocabulary and, of course, knowledge! 

This primal necessity of making his little world of 
experience intelligible to the child should emphasize the 
importance of laying the foundation stones carefully. 

It is upon the careful work done in these early days 
upon the care with which these fundamentals of training 
are built, that the beauty and stability of the completed 



104 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

building will be determined. Too much time and care 
cannot be taken over this essential matter. Until the 
child's first circle of experience has become real and 
definite it is futile to attempt to widen the circle. This 
duty implies the cultivation of the child's motor centres, 
of his power of willing, doing, and also the cultivation of 
his receiving powers — his senses. In how many schools, 
I wonder, is a course in sense training organised ? Yet 
how indispensable for the child is such a training! The 
lack of training these powers of receiving and doing 
accounts for the blunted susceptibilities both moral and 
physical that are met with in life. I know not which is 
the more useless, the man of crude and blunted sensibility 
or the man whose power of doing has not been trained. 

Organisms that fail to respond to their environment 
are bound to suffer and ultimately die. 

Let us postulate this much, that the child's first circle 
of experience has been made intelligible to him. Day by 
day, as he grows his circle widens ; his little world grows 
larger. This new area added on is made of the self-same 
stuff as the original circle — namely, experience. The 
new knowledge is interpreted in terms of the old, and 
only so far as it can thus be interpreted is it assimilated 
and the growth a real one. Knowledge that cannot thus 
be interpreted is not knowledge nor even "learned 
lumber." The experience of children is, as we have seen, 
of two kinds, that of the natural world and that of his 
fellows. 

For his physical welfare and success in life a training 
in natural truths is indispensable ; for moral growth a 
knowledge of his social milieu is essential. For the 
development of a fine character and skilled mind a 
training in both these fundamentals is the only condition 
of success. 



THE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING 105 

Let it not be forgotten that our pupils are children of 
earth. They are not angels and were not intended to 
be here. Indeed they are very earthy little bodies full 
of the characteristics, or imperfections if you like, of 
humanity. Our duty is to train them to live their lives 
on earth which after all is the best preparation for a 
life elsewhere. A beautiful life, a character keenly 
responsive to all its surroundings, sensitive to all good 
influences, what better sacrifice can man offer? It is by 
becoming more human that we shall reach the stars. 
Man must become very man, and child very child before 
the possibilities of life will have been realised. The 
child's inalienable right to be a child will have to be 
admitted. It is near time that that old-world idea of the 
child being man, angel, or devil, should be abandoned. 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE 
PRIMARY SCHOOL. 

"What you have inherited from )our fathers you must earn 
again in order to possess it." 

An Australian writer asserts that the EngHsh teacher is, 
as a rule, more concerned with the practical details of 
his work, and the American teacher with the philosophy 
of teaching. 

A teacher of many years' experience told me the 
other day that he can recollect in the days before " pay- 
ment by results " many teachers' meetings entirely 
taken up with purely pedagogic questions ; and I am 
inclined to think that the practice of examination killed 
the philosophy of teaching. Method was of no importance, 
results alone counted. However, I believe that, now that 
that dark cloud has gone, brighter days are in store for 
us. Teachers' meetings are a highly organised branch 
of the national system of education in France, Germany, 
and America. Attendance is compulsory, all expenses 
are paid, and all facilities are given by the State. I 
trust that we too ere long will see the value of such 
conferences. 

The revolution of the last ten years has now culmin- 
ated in the 1900 Code which has as its keynote freedom 
of curriculum. 



the curriculum of the primary school lo/ 
Primary School Curriculum, 

The new Code deliberately hands over the framing of 
curricula to the local managers and teachers.* This is 
a great privilege and responsibility, and it behoves us, 
therefore, to devote our best energies to the task- 
Properly considered, this drawing up of a curriculum 
is the momentous matter in education. It involves an 
investigation into our articles of educational faith. 

What are our ideals ? What, in our opinion, can 
education do for the children of the State ? What is 
the function of the primary school ? 

What is Meant by Education. 

Let us examine this matter in detail. To my mind, 
the ideal aim of education, that which we as teachers 
should place as the guiding star to all our efforts, is to 
teach our children the beauty of holiness and the holiness 
of beauty ; to teach them to see the beautiful as an 
expression of the eternal, and to recognise the true, the 

* It is anticipated that teachers v/ill utiHse this opportunity to 
make the curriculum of their school more real, more instinct with 
life to the children, by bringing the subjects and methods into 
close touch with the environment and daily life of the children, 
and that no longer shall a great gulf be fixed between the home 
life and the school life of the child. This does not mean making 
our curriculum a utilitarian one, but rather a living one. Here 
is a school fixed in a certain geographical position, which fact 
should mainly condition the curriculum ; at any rate, that is the 
stated wish of those in authority. They have divested them- 
selves of the responsibility of prescribing a curriculum for every 
school in England and Wales, and have thrown this duty upon 
those best cognisant with those local conditions, namely, the 
teachers and managers. This responsibility is a heavy one, for 
upon its success will depend that of the school and its scholars. 



I08 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

beautiful, and the good. Then will they see the lack 
of harmony; the want of sympathy ; indeed, the ugliness 
of sin. That is an ideal. Let us come down to the 
earth again. 

I would say that a system of education, to be of real 
permanent value, must consist of a preparation for life — 
for complete living. The curriculum must be a living 
one. " How rarely," says an American writer, " do the 
problems of life accord with those of the school ! In 
school the question is, 'What do you know?' In life 
it becomes, ' What can you do ? ' " Our most serious 
problem is to bridge this gulf between school and life, 
and this must be done by making our curriculum not a 
utilitarian one, as demanded by Herbert Spencer, but a 
living one — one based upon child-experience. 

" One of the best tests of a system of education is the 
preparation it gives for life in a liberal sense. When a 
child, leaving school behind, develops into a citizen, what 
tests are applied to him ? The questions submitted to 



A curriculum peculiarly appropriate to your schools should be 
devised, bearing in mind the truth that your reward will be in 
proportion to your labours, and that there must be a unity in 
your curriculum before success can be assured. Each subject of 
instruction must be looked upon, not as one of a set of pigeon-holes, 
but as one element in a beautiful design. The moral and intel- 
lectual sides must mutually co-operate. There should in a good 
school be no one element unduly dwarfed or developed ; there 
should be a perfect harmony and balance between every subject 
and method of the school. We are forming as far as possible, 
as far as in us lies, a machine perfected and designed only for the 
development of fine characters. " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." If your school is turning out good men and women, worthy 
citizens, of this great Empire, be sure that the machine is working 
perfectly, and that every part in the machine is well looked after 
by the workman. 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL IO9 

his judgment in his relations to the family and to society- 
call for a quick and varied knowledge of men, insight 
into character, and for a large amount of practical in- 
formation of natural science. He is asked to vote 
intelligently on social, political, sanitary and economic 
questions, to judge of men's motives, opinions and 
character ; to vote upon or perhaps to direct the 
management of poor-houses, asylums, and penitentiaries ; 
in towns to decide questions of drainage, police, water 
supply, public health, and school administration, to make 
contracts for public buildings and bridges, to grant 
licenses and franchises, to serve on juries as repre- 
sentatives of the people. These are not professional 
matters alone ; they are the common duties of all 
citizens of a sound mind." 

" These things each person should know how to judge, 
whether he be a blacksmith, a merchant, or a house- 
keeper. In all such matters he must be not only a judge 
of others, but an actor under the guidance of right motives 
and information." 



I consider that it is this freedom, this power of working out our 
own salvation, which is given to teachers and managers, that is the 
really vital and all-important characteristic of the new Code. The 
able and enthusiastic teacher will at last be able to show us the 
sure possibilities of his mind and power, and 1 anticipate that the 
results will in many cases surprise and delight us. Imagine the 
joy of the artist or poet working out the conception of his mind 
untrammelled by any necessities of pot-boiling, and v/e may then 
realise perhaps the satisfaction, the keen anticipations of future 
triumphs, with which the new Code is greeted by teachers through- 
out the country. The effect of such liberty may be seen to-day in 
our best infant schools, where the noblest and most valuable traits 
of child-life are being developed in a beautiful atmosphere and 
under a regime philosophical and yet lovable. To enter such 
schools is to many visitors an education, and to many of us the 



no SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

" Again in the bringing up of children, in the domestic 
arrangements of every home, and in a proper care for the 
minds and bodies of both parents and children, a multi- 
tude of practical problems from each of the great fields 
of real knowledge must be met and solved." (McMurry.) 

Before proceeding to discuss what these two fields of 
Real knowledge may be, let us consider what the attitude 
of the primary school to the State should be. 

The primary school is, above all else, a training place 
for future citizens^ not a preparatory school for any class, 
neither workmen nor merchants, hut for all. 

Moral Strength. 

The real stability, permanence, and power of a State 
is not measured by the number of its soldiers, the strength 
of its ironclads, nor yet the depth of its exchequer ; but 
rather by the moral strength of its citizens ; by the un- 
compromising firmness of its manhood to the eternal 

regret has been keen that this admirable system of training ceases 
when a child has reached the momentous age of seven years. 

Owing to our national respect for the virtue of self help, our 
grants in the past have been largely made on the principle that 
unto those that have even more shall be added, and from those that 
have not shall be taken away even that which they have. The 
new Code has adopted the converse principle, and it is they whose 
needs are greatest who will perhaps benefit most within prescribed 
limits. 

This will, I trust, have an immediate and far-reaching effect on 
those schools situated in poor districts, whose funds were all 
too little for the demands of modern progress. I hope and believe 
that an immediate improvement will be noticed in the premises 
and equipment of such schools, and that the children of these 
poorer districts will, as most certainly they should, enjoy precisely 
the same advantages and privileges as children of more favoured 
localities. — Extracted from an address on ' The New Code.'' 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL III 

principles of Justice and Truth. The fortress of a 
national as of an individual life is moral strength ; a 
wide tolerant outlook on life — a broad sympathy and a 
many-sided interest. Here, then, is the function of our 
primary school. To build fine characters, to create broad, 
tolerant sympathies, based upon experience and interest 
— that is our task. 

" One of the most distinctive features of recent ^ 
Herbartian thought is that all instruction, even in what 
we regard as non-moral subjects, such as science, mathe- 
matics, linguistics, profane history and literature, should 
tend directly and powerfully to the formation of moral, 
not to say religious, character. If this view has more 
than a sentimental validity, it is worthy of the most 
serious attention ; for it is evident to every thoughtful 
man that our public schools have been intellectualized 
beyond what is best for the individual, and the general 
moral welfare." (De Garmo.) 

" To know everything is to forgive everything," said a 
great writer. It is lack of knowledge that is the mother 
of intolerance. Our lives too often run in very narrow 
channels. We must find a wider outlook on life, a 
larger horizon, a fuller experience. It is in the primary 
school that characters are formed. " Many of the most 
important lessons of life must be learned and converted 
into habit long before professional (or any kind of 
technical) studies are begun. Before the boy decides 
to be a merchant or a dentist he must decide whether 
he will be an honest man or a rogue, a law-abiding 
citizen or a disturber, narrow and bigoted or charitable 
and liberal. Until these things are settled, and settled 
aright, it is an impertinence to talk of a profession." 
(McMurry.) 

If, then, it be true that our aim is to train up fine 



112 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

characters even more than clever scholars, it is evident 
that our curriculum must be conditioned by this avowed 
aim. Such a singleness of aim, such a solidarity of 
purpose, is of the highest pedagogic value, and will, I 
feel sure, make our work in school much more interesting 
and instructive. There is nothing so prolific of routine, 
of dreariness, as a lack of, or a confusion of aim. Let it 
be once definitely recognised that the whole curriculum is 
devoted to and concentrated upon the development of 
character and there will ensue a criterion of curricula 
of the greatest value. " Every educative school will 
endeavour to have the contemplation of (moral) things 
become a necessity to the scholars, communion with 
nature a source of the purest joy, the society of great 
historical personages an elevation, the devotion to 
everything beautiful and noble a recreation, and the 
search and struggle for clearness and truth a hearty 
purpose." 

So the purpose and aim of our school is training men 
and women for life. Character building is our work, — 
that is, " the incorporation of knowledge into habit." It 
has been well said that "not discipline and knowledge" 
should be our aim, but rather "discipline through know- 
ledge ; " hence our criterion of the elements of the 
curriculum should be: In what respect will this know- 
ledge be a means of discipline? But further, this 
knowledge must be real — it must be capable of assimila- 
tion by the child, and hence must be related to and 
based upon the child's experience. 

Ziller, the German educational reformer, put his 
questions thus : — 

(i.) What must be selected from human knowledge 
as the subject matter of instruction ? 

(2.) How must these studies be co-ordinated so as to 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL II 3 

conduce to the most perfect mastery of knowledge, the 
clearest insight into moral relations and the formation 
of the highest moral ideals, the best moral disposition, 
the best moral habits ? 

(3.) What method of teaching will best further the 
above-named ends ? 

The guiding principles he adopts are : — ^ 

(i.) The conception of moral training through instruc- 
tion in the common school branches, keeping the five 
moral ideas in close touch, with the content of the 
various studies. 

(2.) The apperception of children or their natural 
thought processes, founded upon acquired knowledge 
and social experience, as the only reliable guide to the 
selection and management of studies, together with the 
best methods of teaching them. 

(3.) The necessity of developing in the pupils an 
inherent, far-reaching, and abiding interest in study as a 
moral revelation of the world. (De Garmo.) ^ 

Much of our efforts are wasted because we forget this 
cardinal truth of apperception. 

" No one hears anything except what he knows, 
no one perceives anything except what he has ex- 
perienced." We are continually asking too much of 
our pupils. 

" We presuppose in him a great store of experiences, 
an abundance of sense perceptions and ethical observa- 
tions, and fundamental ideas of time and space, which 
he has either not at all or else not with the desirable 
clearness." (Lange.) But besides being based upon the 
experiences of children, our instruction must appeal 
directly to the child's interest ; it must be real and 
living. 

It may be noted that to maintain the interest of 



114 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

children under 12 years of age for more than half an 
hour is very difficult indeed — so shorter lessons might 
well be introduced into our time tables. 

But this interest of which I have spoken must be 
direct interest, that is, created by the matter of the 
lesson itself, not by indirect interest arising from ambition 
or hope of reward. I think we should be very chary of 
introducing such indirect interest arising from rivalry 
and ambition into the primary school, for in their train 
follow germs of many sad faults. " The main interest 
of children must be attracted by what we call ' real 
knowledge ' subjects, that is, those treating of people 
(history, stories, etc.), and those treating of plants, 
animals, and other natural objects (Natural Science 
Topics.) Grammar, arithmetic, and spelling are chiefly 
' form ' studies, and have less native attraction to 
children. Secondly, it may be laid down as a fact of 
experience that children will be more touched and 
stimulated by ' particular ' persons and objects in nature 
than by any general propositions or laws or classifica- 
tions. They prefer seeing a particular palm tree to 
hearing a general description of palms. A narrative of 
some special deed of kindness moves them more than a 
discourse on kindness. They feel a natural drawing 
towards real, definite persons and things, and an in- 
difference or repulsion towards generalities. They prefer 
the story to the moral." (McMurry.) 

Nothing interests a child that he cannot understand, 
and he cannot understand a thing outside his experience. 
All instruction must be real, must be based upon child 
experience. 

The geography taught should be that of home and 
school, then county, and country, and all the rest based 
firmly on this bed-rock of child experience. The aim is 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 11$ 

to give the child definite, clear conceptions of what we 
mean by certain geographical terms. Upon this 
home geography is built the geography of later years. 
The Alps then become i8 Kilvey Hills piled one on top 
of the other, the Thames is ten Tawes rushing together 
to the sea, and London is fifty Swanseas growing side 
by side. 

Again, in history, instead of plunging with our pupils 
and Julius Caesar into the English Channel, B.C. 55, we 
will take them over to Neath Abbey, or to Oystermouth 
Castle, and show them these relics of the past, and with 
these things before them, they will readily assimilate the 
tales we tell them. Then in the training to civic duties 
and citizenship we will show them the Town Hall, Guild- 
hall, Law Courts, Parish Church, Public Library, the 
Workhouse, Railway Station, Post Office, etc., and upon 
these and around them build up many a stout structure 
of sound learning and good training. Similarly all the 
subjects of instruction should be based upon child 
experience. Instead of talking to children about 
millions or thousands of pounds, let us be content if 
they can handle half-crowns and sovereigns with ease, 
and thrift. But this pre-requisite of all knowledge, 
namely, experience, varies much in children of different 
localities. " Children who grow up among crippled 
factory hands, among consumptive weavers, and in 
woodless places ; children who from birth have never 
seen sea or mountain, are all their lives lacking in the 
tones, accords, and stories that make up the poetry of 
the world."* Generally speaking, children of a wealthier 
district have opportunities of gaining experience more 
quickly and more extensively than children from poorer 

* Golz " Buch der Kindheit " (quoted by Lange). 



Il6 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

districts, so that schools attended by the former children 
should be able to adopt the more generous and wider 
curriculum. 

This holds irrespective of the relative staffs of two 
such schools, but when it is remembered that too often 
poverty in staff accompanies poverty of experience in 
the children, it is seen at once how handicapped the 
poorer school is in the comparison. 

Children's Characters. 

But further than all this, I consider that in designing our 
curriculum, we shall best secure our unity of purpose by 
endeavouring, as far as possible, to secure a solidarity, a 
unity, and a co-ordination in all the subjects of instruction, 
and that the character purpose we have set before our- 
selves shall condition mainly what subjects we shall 
teach. To this end of training every element of the 
curriculum should be made to contribute. "The more the 
studies threaten to diverge, the firmer must the fusion of 
the individual parts be made, so that through all multi- 
plicity aud variety there shall never be lacking the funda- 
mental condition of unity of consciousness for identity of 
personality, and therefore for the development of moral 
character."* Children's characters are formed by ex- 
ample, not precept ; they follow the examples of their 
companions, their teachers, and the historic characters 
whose lives they read of This unifying of the curriculum 
is of the highest value, and concentrates from many 
directions the knowledge gained into a co-ordinated set 
of ideas. Dr. Rein states, " The ethical need demands 
that the teacher shall endeavour to concentrate the 
spiritual forces of the pupil so that they shall not be 

* Rein : " Das Erste Schuljahr" (quoted by De Garmo.) 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 11/ 

dissipated, but shall in their union call forth strength, 
effective action. Without such concentration of mental 
forces no moral character is conceivable." 

But there is a distinctly practical side to this question 
of a unified curriculum. If no subject should be taught 
which is unessential to the avowed aim of the school, 
then it is evident that here we have a ready means of 
getting rid of undesirable elements in the curriculum. 
Our first duty is to get rid of non-essential elements, and 
not to allow others of a similar character to creep in 
again either by the advocacy of the specialist or the 
predilections of the enthusiast. 

Variety of Curricula. 

Hence our curriculum must be in harmony with the 
surroundings, and be real and living. Every element in 
it must be based upon child experience, and be selected 
solely for its intrinsic value in character-building. To 
fulfil these conditions for each school involves a variety 
of curricula, and so it will be impossible, and certainly 
very undesirable, for us to attempt to suggest a curri- 
culum for every school in a district. It is the duty of 
those who best know the local conditions of the school to 
draw up the curriculum. At the same time, we may dis- 
cuss with propriety those essentials of a curriculum upon 
which this variety is ulitmately based. The Board of 
Education states, " In all schools the rudimentary in- 
struction admits of little variety, for in all schools the 
younger children must learn to read and write and to 
understand what they read, to express their own mean- 
ing correctly, whether in speech or writing, and to 
acquire some mastery of the elementary principles of 
arithmetic. In all schools also, boys should learn to 



Il8 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

draw, and girls to sew, and both should learn something 
of their own country, and be taught to observe, and to 
acquire for themselves some knowledge of the facts of 
nature." 

It is true that a knowledge of the three R's is indis- 
pensable, and that they must always form the basis of 
the primary school curriculum. But, after all, they are 
but weapons for the acquisition of knowledge, not know- 
ledge itself — they are formal studies, not culture studies. 
If this truth were more generally recognised, a consider- 
able change would appear in our school-work, and less 
time would probably be devoted to putting an unneces- 
sarily fine edge on three most useful weapons. In 
writing, for example, I believe that valuable time would 
be saved in our upper classes if we insisted that all 
writing should be well done, not some of it, and so doing 
away with the necessity of copy-book practice. In read- 
ing, what one may term the rhetorical embellishments 
might, I think, be largely dropped, and clear, natural 
enunciation alone cultivated, so that more time may be 
devoted to the matter, and less to the form of the lesson. 
To read with expression and vivacity is an admirable 
accomplishment, but to read with thought is a greater 
gift. One of the highest aims we can set before our- 
selves is to train our pupils how to read and appreciate 
a good book, how out of the rich storehouse of human 
experience, as set forth in books, to extract whatever is 
good and noble and true.* 

* " One of the best founded causes of complaint against our 
schools, both public and private, has been the fact that masses of 
our people who have obtained their education in these schools are 
not habitual readers of good literature. They have not formed 
such habits and tastes in childhood as to make all the years of their 
lives add knowledge by reading. They do not draw inspiration 



the curriculum of the primary school ii9 

The Study of Nature. 

To engender a taste for good literature, a liking for 
the society and communion of the great world-spirits, to 
nourish high ideals amid humble surroundings, are 
mental attitudes which our primary schools can create 
and cherish. Many authorities hold that a more im- 
portant feature of the curriculum, from the pedagogic 
point of view, than even the three R's, and certainly 
equally indispensable, is a training in the truths of his- 
tory and nature. If character formation is our aim, then 
it is our duty to train children to right judgment. But 
our judgments are concerned mainly with Man and 
Nature. How, then, it is urged can we better train our 
pupils to form a right judgment on human affairs than 
by allowing them to profit from the accumulated experi- 
ence of mankind in history, and the aggregated knowledge 
of the race in the study of Nature?* It is the duty of 
the teacher to supplement the experience of the child by 

and information easily, lovingly, and habitually from books, the 
great cold-storage houses of the best of the world's experience. 
They believe in good reading but in their homes many of them read 
little, or go by choice to literature that is worthless or morally and 
socially debilitating. The schools have trained children in the 
mechanics of reading but have not given that enjoyment in good 
literature, that zest for books, that come only from continued interest 
and pleasure in their perusal. Recent experience in the schools has 
proved what has long been claimed by our wisest teachers — that 
the study of text books must be supplemented by much practice in 
reading interesting books. Childi'en need plenty of opportunity to 
read attractive stories, biographies, tales of travel and adventure, 
till the zest for information and interest, growing by what it feeds 
upon, begets a craving for wholesome knowledge which can best be 
satisfied by reading." (O. E. Wells.) 

* See Ufer's Introduction, page 63, 



I20 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

teaching him something of the world of nature surround- 
ing him, and to extend his daily intercourse with man 
by bringing him into touch with the lives and thoughts 
of the great Dead. These two elements of the curri- 
culum, nature study and history, are the two essentials 
— the two foundation stones upon which, using the 
tools he is taught to use, namely, the three R's, the 
whole structure of school training and discipline is based. 
History, I may add, is of all these elements the most 
valuable for the cultivation of character, for, as I have 
already said, it is example, not precept, that teaches. 

If this be true, then how indispensable does a training 
in the truths of history appear to be to everyone ! 

" A little reflection will show that we are only demand- 
ing object lessons in the field of moral education, ex- 
tensive, systematic object lessons ; choice experiences 
and episodes from human life, simple and clear, painted 
in natural colours, as shown by our best history and 
literature. To appreciate the virtues and vices, to 
sympathise with better impulses, we must travel beyond 
words and definitions till we come in contact with the 
personal deeds that first gave rise to them." (McMurry.) 
This history, in the lower classes, will, I suppose, be 
mainly biographical, and, as far as possible, the heroes 
would be sons of our own land, " bone of our bone and 
flesh of our flesh." 

We have now gathered together the elements of a 
primary school curriculum, namely, history and nature 
study, and the three indispensable weapons — the three 
R's, together with drawing for boys, needlework for girls, 
and singing and physical exercise for both. Under the 
terms nature study and history is involved a knowledge 
of geography. A course of object lessons on home 
geography and history in the lower classes will lead up 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 121 

to a knowledge based upon the growing experience of 
the child of the wider world around, selecting, of course, 
those portions which by their interest most readily appeal 
to the pupil. 

In the home geography of the lower classses there are 
seven topics for discussion, which cover a wide field of 
observation, and form the environment of the child. 

(i.) Food products and the occupations connected 
with them 

(2.) Clothing materials used, and their manufacture, 
etc. 

(3.) Building materials. 

(4.) Local industries, railways, bridges, canals, roads, 
etc. 

(5.) Local surface features, etc., hills, streams, valleys, 
capes, bays, etc. 

(6.) Town and county governments, town hall, county 
hall, offices, etc. 

(7.) Climate and seasons, sun, wind, storms, etc. 
This course cannot and should not be separated from the 
course of lessons in local history. (See McMurry.) 

Physical Geography. 

Unnecessary details should be avoided, and the course 
in geography should be mainly physical, not political. 
A great deal too much attention and time have hitherto 
been given to political geography. No elements of the 
curriculum are so teeming with interest and life as 
geography and history, yet how often are the dry bones 
offered to the children in the shape of lists of capes, 
islands, or battles. In geography teaching it is, I think, 
essential to keep to the solid ground of "child experience," 
lest we lose touch with the earth, and find ourselves 

8 



122 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

teaching in the clouds. We may, however, legitimately 
cultivate the scientific use of the imagination, and by 
this means the child can follow us from the banks of the 
Tawe to the Banks of the Nile ; and it is sound teaching, 
I think, to get the child to form a conception of the 
valley of the Thames or Mississippi based upon his 
knowledge of the Tawe valley. 

Such types might be taken and treated exhaustively 
in a course of lessons, e.g.^ Swansea as a metallurgical 
centre, the Mumbles as a holiday resort, Gower as an 
agricultural district, Landore as a railway centre. All 
these might be taken in detail, cause and effect de- 
veloped, and the whole crystallized and consolidated by 
a series of school excursions, then, having this base-rock 
of experience to rest upon, we may build our fuller 
course of world geography. So in history we may 
select our local types upon which all subsequent know- 
ledge may be firmly built. 

Let me say something as to arithmetic. The same 
general considerations apply; the number exercises would 
be largely concrete and within the child's experience, 
hence the inutility of training children with big quantities 
beyond their experience. 

Accuracy is desirable, but intelligence is essential. 
We must see also that our line of communications is un- 
broken. Constant revision will ensure this — not revision 
at the end of the term or year. 

Mental Gymnastics. 

In the upper classes of our schools, much time is at 
present devoted to what have, by unkind critics, been 
called " arithmetical conundrums," exercises in vari- 
ations of stocks and shares, discount — banker's and 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 1 23 

otherwise, compound interest, etc. Now, I confess, I am 
somewhat doubtful as to the practical or educational 
value of such mental gymnastics. It seems to me here 
again we are putting too fine an edge on the razor, in- 
stead of shaving with it. I doubt if they are of much 
use in after life, and I feel sure that much of the time 
devoted to such arithmetic in the upper classes might 
be more profitably devoted to introducing the child to 
the elements of algebra or geometry. The truths 
taught in arithmetic are particular, those of algebra 
universal, and it is a great step for the pupil to make, 
passing from the particular to the universal. Moreover, 
most of these problems in higher arithmetic are much 
more readily solved by algebraical methods. Algebra 
is to arithmetic what the Mauser is to the old Brown 
Bess. It carries further, quicker, and surer. It would, 
I think, be an advantage in all suitably-staffed schools 
that boys and girls in their eleventh, twelfth, and 
thirteenth years should be taught the elements of 
algebra. Just as algebra is a finer mental weapon than 
arithmetic, so also is the introduction of the child to 
another language than English a finer discipline than 
those lessons in elementary logic which have hitherto 
gone by the name of grammar in our schools. It is un- 
necessary for me to justify the statement that the tech- 
nique of English grammar has been taken too early and 
too fully in the school. Children have never yet been 
taught to speak and write Queen's English by a course 
in grammar. It is by doing the child learns ; by hearing 
and reading good English does he acquire the power 
himself The grammar necessary for primary scholars 
can, and should, generally be taught incidentally in 
lessons on reading and writing. The time thus saved 
may profitably be devoted in some schools (where the 



124 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Staff and environment are favourable) to introducing the 
children to the elements of another language. The 
mental discipline thus obtained is most valuable, and the 
moral content of such lessons is not inappreciable. I 
refrain from discussing the commercial value of such 
additions to the curriculum, for I hold that commercial 
and industrial considerations should not be discussed 
u^hen designing the primary school course. That is why 
I am dubious as to the value of introducing such non- 
essential elements as book-keeping, shorthand, com- 
mercial subjects generally, and agriculture into the 
curriculum of the primary school. 

Further, the time at our disposal is limited, and, I 
need hardly add, that unless a subject of study receives 
adequate time, it had far better not be included at all. 

Nature study or natural science, I have already 
said, is to my mind an essential element of the unified 
curriculum. 

"Common Things." 

In the lower classes this would take the form of a 
series of object lessons on " Common Things." In the 
rural school such things are the objects that surround 
the child in every direction. The flowers of the road- 
side hedge, and garden ; the leaves of the trees, the seed, 
buds, and blossoms of these ; the crops of roots, grain 
and grass — all afford fit subject for discussion and obser- 
vation. The Board of Education in a recent circular 
states, " The Board would deprecate the idea of giving 
in rural elementary schools professional training in 
practical agriculture, but they think that teachers should 
lose no opportunity of giving their scholars an intelligent 
knowledge of the surroundings of ordinary rural life and 
of showing them how to observe the processes of Nature 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 1 25 

for themselves. One of the main objects of the teacher 
should be to develop in every boy and girl the habit of 
inquiry and research so natural to children ; they should 
be encouraged to ask their own questions about the 
simple phenomena of nature which they see around 
them, and themselves to search for flowers, plants, insects, 
and other objects to illustrate the lessons which they 
have learnt with their teacher." Country excursions are 
suggested as a means of aiding such instruction as is 
here sketched. As Ruskin says, "It ought to be made 
an important portion of the weekly work of every school 
to take the children into the country to breathe its balm, 
grow strong in its healthy breezes, see and enjoy its 
beauties, and receive there that glorious training of sense 
and soul, head and heart, possible only beneath the blue 
vault of heaven. In truth, the country should become 
an outer uncovered class-room — a divine museum — 
utilised by our teachers," 

And School Excursions. 

But what of town schools ? I will quote from a 
German publication. " Our excursions will, of course, 
meet with great difficulties in our large cities, in over- 
crowded schools, and also for the want of good sense on 
the part of some parents. There it is best to divide the 
school into sections for the purpose, not to mind the talk 
of the idle crowd, and finally to overcome, through the 
devoted and faithful discharge of our duties, the pre- 
judices of parents, who do not understand the importance 
and necessity of our efforts. At least one capable 
teacher. Dr. Bartholomai, succeeded in this way even in 
a city like Berlin in carrying out these school excursions 
regularly. He, too, found idle starers, who cracked jokes 



126 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

at his expense, and he heard it now and then said by 
the BerHn Phihstines ' that the children's clothes and 
shoes were being ruined uselessly ; ' but he maintained 
his purpose." 

We, also, can do the same thing. We must expect 
ridicule, but to-day in Germany it is only the surprised 
Britisher who gazes after a troop of children with their 
teacher in the busy streets of Cologne, the ruins of 
Heidelberg Castle, or on the Rhine boat ; so will it be 
to-morrow here. These healthy, stimulating walks will 
prove of the highest intellectual and physical worth, and 
their moral effect will be equally great in creating a love 
of home and a pride of country upon which will rise 
firmly the pedestal of a broader patriotism. As for the 
expense of such excursions, I think that Nature has pro- 
vided the youth with the best horse, namely. " Shanks 
Mare." There is too much riding, and too little walking 
now-a-days. There is nothing more interesting and in- 
structive than a jaunt through a country on our legs. 
In Germany one often meets a troop of students, stick in 
hand and knapsack on back, swinging gaily along the 
highway to the time and tune of one of their beautiful 
songs. Thus is their holiday vacation most profitably 
and wisely spent. 

In the town school, sections might be taken in turn 
on these excursions. Some of these excursions might 
be out to the country, but others might very profitably 
be to various places of interest and instruction in the 
town. It might be possible for you to obtain the 
privilege for your boys and girls occasionally to visit 
some of the flour mills, the railway stations, 
the generating workshop of the tramcar company, the 
docks, the chemical works, tin-plating works, and steel 
works, analytical laboratories, and other places in the 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 12/ 

town. You could take your pupils into the public parks, 
showing them the various trees and flowers cultivated 
there, to the sea shore, and show them something of the 
wonders of the deep, to the Town Library, to the Royal 
Institution and the Training College, and to the General 
Post Office. I feel sure that, were the officials concerned 
properly approached, they would gladly assist you in 
your endeavours to make the curriculum of your school 
a real living one. It is only in this way that we can 
hope to bridge the gulf between the school and life, and 
make our teaching sound by basing it on experience, 
and concentrating it upon real things. 

Nature Study. 

In selecting the course of lessons in elementary 
science or nature study for the upper classes, the same 
principles will be applied. The course should be real 
and local, and based upon the experience of the children 
who attend the school. It has been urged that such a 
course should be mainly made up of measurement. I 
disagree with this, as I feel that the interest of the child 
would soon wane, and his mind become repelled by the 
apparent lack of variety. Rather should he be taught 
to see the wonderful beauties and ingenious adaptations 
of Nature, by being shown the infinite variety of the 
world around him. The idea underlying such a scheme 
of lessons should be largely that of the Type. By care- 
fully selecting your types, you will be able in your treat- 
ment of these typical phenomena, whether in the animal, 
vegetable, or mineral kingdom, to illustrate the general 
laws and principles of the natural world ; a study of a 
few insects will bring out the facts of mimicry and the 
use of colour as a protective instrument. The hoarding 



128 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

of the squirrel, the busy industry of the ant, the cunning 
and cruelty of the cat, are typical phenomena, and 
general of a class. The adaptation of the organism of 
the horse, of the hare, and of the king-fisher to the 
necessities of environment, are interesting and instructive. 
The laws of development of birth and death may be 
illustrated by one concrete example, but extended to 
the whole living world. Such an adoption of " types " 
will be found a great relief, and will enable you to extend 
your sphere of operations to a much greater extent than 
would be possible otherwise. 

In the rural school such a course of nature study 
would, I presume, deal with that aspect of science which 
bears upon the daily life of the farm and the cottage. 
Some elementary notions of zoology and botany, as 
illustrated by the local fauna and flora, lessons on the 
local rocks, local industries, together with discussions on 
local climatology, would form the main portions of such 
a course. Lessons on bee-keeping and poultry, on 
manuring and tillage, would help to bring the school 
nearer home, and these would be taught, not because of 
a utilitarian, but of an educational principle. 

In this direction much may be done by simple experi- 
ments carried on in boxes in the schoolroom. Boxes of 
mould may be fertilized or sterilized, and the results of 
various seed compared. Other conditions of growth 
may be varied, and thus the children may be shown th^ 
effect of light, of manure (artificial and natural), of water, 
of lime and other earths, of different soils, of variation in 
crops by means of these simple experiments. In this 
direction much scope is possible for the individuality of 
each teacher. One may prefer to lay stress on this, 
another on that, branch of study. 

In the town schools, again, the same principles in 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 1 29 

drawing out a course in elementary science should be 
applied. The course would bean experimental one, and 
based, as far as possible, upon the school excursions, and 
be appropriate to the environment of the children, and 
with due emphasis laid upon those elements which the 
teacher himself considers most suitable to his staff and 
school. The local fauna, flora, geology, and physio- 
graphy would be drawn upon, and the lessons would be 
closely co-ordinated with those of geography. The 
course in elementary science should, I consider, deal 
with facts, not abstractions, and like the object lessons 
which accompany or precede them, will be considered, 
not as opportunities for bringing a number of more or 
less unpalatable and uninteresting facts before the 
children, but rather as the opportunity, /a;- excellence ^ q{ 
cultivating the children's power of observation and 
reasoning. 

" In the prosecution of this aim, we have to keep before 
us the necessity of presenting to the learners a clear^ 
memorable, and, as far as possible, vivid picture of each 
plant and animal brought under their notice. We should 
make them see for themselves some, at least, of the 
leading characters in which it resembles or differs from 
other organisms. If it can be actually seen and handled, 
we should take care that they become personally ac- 
quainted with it. We should be able to tell them of its 
habits or instincts, its place of abode, its distribution, its 
usefulness or hurtfulness to man. In short, we should 
endeavour to ensure that at least some few plants and 
animals are made thoroughly familiar to the young as 
types from which a more extended knowledge may after- 
wards be reached. To the taught, success in this task 
brings incredible benefit. We stimulate their habits of 
observation and reflection ; we rouse in them an intelli- 



130 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

gent interest in the phenomena of life ; we awaken in 
them a sense of reverence and sympathy for all living 
things ; and we open up to them glimpses of the infinite 
variety and beauty, the marvellous adaptations, and the 
orderly plan of the vegetable and animal worlds. To the 
teacher the task will become one of the most interesting 
parts of his work. Let him not for a moment suppose 
that he need be a botanist and zoologist to be able 
adequately to fill it. The acquirements demanded of 
him are not greater than every intelligent member of the 
community ought to possess. The main essential is that 
he should make acquaintance with the objects which he 
brings under the notice of his pupils, that he may describe 
with the freshness and vividness of personal knowledge, 
and be able to act as guide in the observations made by 
those under his charge. Every year he will find his own 
experience widen and his confidence increase, while at 
the same time he will note how much more he can see 
in a familiar plant or animal than he could when he first 
began to speak about it. His teaching will be entirely 
untechnical and unsystematic, but though necessarily 
fragmentary, it should be sound so far as it goes. It 
should involve nothing to be unlearnt afterwards, but on 
the contrary should provide a solid foundation of ele- 
mentary knowledge on which any future superstructure 
of scientific acquirement may be securely built. Above 
all, as far as may be expedient, it should excite a desire 
for the attainment of further knowledge on the part of 
the pupils." (Geikie.) 

The function of science training in the primary school 
is to develop a certain mental attitude towards natural 
phenomena, to develop a habit of observing and reason- 
ing on things, to train the pupil to realise the great law 
of cause and effect — that nothing happens without due 



THE CURRICULUM OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL I3I 

and adequate cause, and to encourage him to drop the 
naturally childish reasoning on phenomena, and to abolish 
the deus ex machina, to see that everything is in accord- 
ance with experience and reason, above all morally to 
recognise the inevitableness of events, the overwhelming 
power of environment, and so to develop toleration and 
sympathy in our dealings with our fellow-men. The 
child's appreciation of the beautiful may be cultivated, 
and his ethical side be touched by the variety and in- 
evitable sequence of natural phenomena — by a training 
in nature study. 

Hitherto our discussion on the curriculum of the 
primary school has been confined to those elements 
which develop mainly the mental powers of the pupil. 
It is now our duty to say a word as to the cultivation of 
his physical powers. 

I have had to omit the training of the aesthetic side of 
the child owing to pressure of time. Something is being 
done in this direction by the art studies of our pupils, and 
an appeal, mute, but powerful, is made by the beautiful 
pictures and busts of many of our better-equipped schools. 

Cultivation of Physical Powers. 

One of the most characteristic features of our best 
infant schools to-day is their cultivation of the child's 
self-activity by means of suitable occupations. His little 
hands are taught with patient care, and his fingers are 
trained to be supple and dexterous in many a beautiful 
and educative occupation. Yet after so much loving care 
and labour, behold the child, having reached the crucial 
seventh year, proceeds to another school where all this 
training is stopped. If the principle of reaching a child's 
mind through his senses is sound, then surely it is applic- 
able to children over, as well as under, seven years of 



132 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

age. Consequently, manual occupations should form an 
essential feaure of the primary school course, certainly of 
the large urban schools. Boys from seven to ten years 
of age should, I think, be taught exercises in cardboard 
work, clay-modelling, wire-work, book-binding, basket- 
work, etc., which exercises would lead up naturally to the 
manual work in wood and iron of the upper classes of 
the school, I am convinced that were our boys taught 
to use their hands and fingers properly we should soon 
see the loafers and loungers of life disappear. In country 
schools I should like to see cottage gardening taken up. 
Girls have hitherto been more fortunate, as they 
generally receive instruction in needlework and cookery. 
It is unnecessary for me to point out how much harm is 
done to household and community by a lack of know- 
ledge on the part of mothers, of the elements of cookery, 
needlework, and housewifery. 

Here, again, the moral value of this training is to be 
emphasised. Such a course of manual training con- 
tributes its full to the moral content of the school 
curriculum : a child is by this taught in concrete form, 
so to speak, the virtues of carefulness, orderliness, 
patience, and perseverance. 

I have put forward the curriculum of the primary 
school as my basis for discussion, but I hope you will 
be guided by your own ideals. Let your school be, so far 
as in you lies, the embodiment in living form of your 
ideals; stamp upon it your own personality. Do not 
look to others for your curriculum — make it yourselves. 
Let me, however, add that it will be heavy and re- 
sponsible work, involving, in my opinion, much thought 
and careful calculation. That is why I have this morn- 
ing endeavoured to set forth what I may call the criteria 
of curricula. 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY. 

The aim of geography teaching in the lower classes of 
primary schools is considered to be to give the child 
clear mental concepts of what is meant by certain 
geographical terms, — that when you speak to a child 
of an isthmus or a cape, he is able to call up, not a 
string of words from the lumber-room of the memory, 
but a finely-chiselled concept, real and clear to him. 
That is the aim of the teaching of home geography, 
and to realise this, we must either take the child to the 
objects we tell him of — and much may be done in this 
way by means of properly organised class excursions — 
or, calling in the help of his imagination, we show him 
models in clay, sand, or plasticine of these objects. 
There is no other way, I think, of giving the child these 
mental concepts which are indispensable to success in 
the later teaching of geography proper. If a child has 
not at the proper time received these elements of correct 
thought, all his knowledge of geography picked up later 
on will suffer from indistinctness and vagueness of out- 
line. It is evident, then, that, for successful teaching of 
geography, special pains must be taken to give the child 
these clear concepts, and that the most unsatisfactory 
method of teaching geography to the lower classes of 
the school is to give them small books, out of which 
they may learn by heart definitions of cape, island, and 
what not. 



134 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

He is the wiser trainer, I think, who exhausts the 
geography of parish, province and country before touch- 
ing any other, and lays special stress on physical 
geography. Often you will find that instead of taking, 
say, the county, or the country, as the unit for teaching, 
and exhausting the physical features of county, then 
the political facts of the county, the German or Swiss 
teacher will take the watershed and basin of a river as 
the unit, and exhaust the physical features and political 
facts of that area before proceeding to another river 
basin. The watershed is a natural unit— the county an 
artificial one. This method has one great advantage — 
you are able to show the children the relationship 
between certain facts — cause and effect come out — a 
most important matter. I cull the following from Dr. 
Klemm's book: — 

" A lesson in geography was listened to in a German 
school, where 70 boys sat together like sardines in a 
box. The teacher had nothing better than a medium- 
sized wall map made by himself His mode of marking 
elevations was very simple and comprehensive, one 
which is well worth imitating. With pencil or pen he 
shaded the map by means of lines crossing each other 
at various angles. Thus he represented the topography 
of a country in a remarkably accurate manner, and this 
easy method enabled his pupils to judge at a glance as 
to the height of the land. They saw why certain rivers 
took such and such a course and no other ; why certain 
cities were cold, others warm ; why a river was navigable 
or not, according to the abruptness of the slope ; why 
certain rivers flowing from great heights had a straighter 
course than those which had little fall and meandered 
through the plain ; why certain lands are blessed with 
mild climates, being sheltered on the north side by high 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY 135 

and steep mountain ranges ; others had a rough ch'mate, 
being exposed to the north wind." Here is another 
extract from the same book: "The Erz Gebirge (ore 
mountains) were once full of silver mines. At the time 
of Martin Luther (at the beginning of the i6th century) 
these mines drew a great number of people to Saxony 
and particularly to that range of mountains. When the 
mines ceased to yield, the population, not being so 
fluctuating as it is now, was obliged to seize upon other 
modes of occupation. The slopes of the mountains 
being well provided with various kinds of wood, offered 
material for a variety of wood-working industries. The 
slopes being steep, the mountain brooks were turbulent, 
and gave an opportunity to build mills, which were first 
used for various purposes. Lastly, when the textile 
industry grew, this water power was utilised to serve that 
industry. The woods soon disappeared on the Erz 
mountains, they were literally used up, so the people had 
to resort to manufacturing pursuits almost entirely, agri- 
culture being impossible. To-day the population of the 
Kingdom of Saxony is the densest of all Germany, and 
aside from that in Belgium, the densest in all Europe. 

" It was cause and effect constantly, and the attention 
and responsiveness of the boys were truly delightful." 

The question " Why ? " should be asked oftener in a 
geography lesson. Thus the reasons for the rapid 
growth and importance sf such towns as Cardiff, Port 
Talbot, or Swansea are apt to be forgotten or obscured 
if taken as items in the Geography of Wales. One week 
we take the physical features of the valleys of the Taff 
or the Avon, and it may be weeks afterwards before 
the political facts of the same area engage our attention. 

A Swiss Inspector recommends that the best way of 
teaching geography is by means of imaginary journeys 



136 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

He writes : " In order to become acquainted with 
Germany, we follow the current of the Rhine ; we 
notice, whilst going from south to north, the morphology 
of the land on the right and left banks, the peculiarities 
of the river itself, its navigation, inundation, curved 
course, formation of islands, tributaries, towns, political 
divisions, etc. With the other rivers we shall do the 
same, and obtain a number of useful detailed ideas, and 
at the same time a general survey of the relief and 
general slope of Germany. The districts at the mouths 
of rivers offer us an opportunity for explaining such 
phenomena as a delta, dune, harbour, tide, etc., for, as a 
matter of course, whenever a new feature is introduced 
for the first time, it must be explained. In the same 
way we are led by the Rhone, or the railway line, as, for 
example, that of Paris- Havre, to and through France — 
by way of St. Gothard Railway to Italy, by the Inn, 
the Danube, and the Veralberg Railway to Austria. 
Scandinavia can be treated in outline by a voyage along 
the coast and a journey from west to east. In like 
manner Spain ; Russia requires a journey from north to 
south. Of course, neither time nor material for repre- 
sentation allows us even to mention a great number of 
the interesting details offered by each country ; what is 
important is to point out the most characteristic. To 
avoid misunderstanding, we repeat that after having 
given a detailed treatment of certain parts, a summary 
of the whole must follow as to its orographic and hydro- 
graphic climate, political and other divisions." 
" America would be completed thus : — 

1. The voyage to New York affording an opportunity 
for a description of a steamer, a cable, the ocean, storms, 
the city. 

2, A journey through the continent, including the 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY 1 37 

Pacific Railway, the plain of the Coast, the Alleghanies, 
St. Louis, the Prairies, Rocky Mountains, and San 
Francisco, and introducing trappers and pioneer settlers. 

3. A voyage on the St. Lawrence and Canadian 
Lakes. 

4. A voyage on the Mississippi, taking note of the 
plantations along its banks. 

5. A voyage round the coasts. 

6. A survey of North America, and its importance to 
Europe." (Reynolds). 

Another aspect of geography teaching is emphasized 
in some German and American schools. It is that of 
the " Type." A town, or a mountain, or a river, known 
more or less familiarly to the children, is taken as the 
type, and exhaustively treated by the teacher. Thus, 
for example, instead of attempting to give the pupil 
some idea of the various metallurgical centres of the 
British Isles, the teacher would take Swansea, or, say, 
Cwmavon, and in a series of lessons carefully examine 
the physical features of one of those towns, emphasizing 
all those points such as nearness to the sea — good dock 
accommodation, suitable railway or canal communica- 
tion — position in reference to Spain, Mexico, and other 
ore producing countries — which may be counted as 
factors in fixing the industries of those towns. A little 
consideration will show you that the possibilities of such 
a course are very great. Again, such a teacher, instead 
of giving the pupil a list of the mountains and mountain 
systems of England and Wales to learn by rote, would 
rather devote several lessons to a very complete and 
careful study of, say, the Breconshire Beacons, or the 
mountain system of Glamorgan. By fixing these types, 
he would have in the future a constant measure and 
standard to refer to. He would tell the pupil, for 

9 



138 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

example, that the Alps are in some respects similar, in 
others different, from the Beacons. "Imagine, boys," he 
would say, " that the Beacons went up five times higher 
than they do go, and that instead of snow on the tops in 
the winter only, it is there all the year round, and the 
valleys, instead of bubbling streams of water have 
slowly-creeping rivers of ice. You know how quiet and 
dark and solemn it is in our deeper valleys in Wales. 
Think, then, how much more solemn, quiet, sombre, and 
isolated it must be in valleys five times as deep as 
ours are." 

I often think that imagination, sympathy, and 
tact are more important to a teacher than to anyone 
else. 

In geography teaching, careful cultivation of the 
child's imagination is one of the chief conditions of 
success, and, indeed, this training of the imagination is 
in itself of the very highest pedagogic value. 

What should be the aim of the geography-teaching 
in the upper classes of the school ? Well, I have no 
hesitation in answering — Correct map-reading, which 
might well be preceded by some lessons in correct 
picture reading, by which means the " children are 
taught to realise different ways of representation, to 
compare the scenery of various regions, to appreciate 
the difference caused in a landscape by change in the 
point of view, and above all to make the greatest use of 
a picture as an instrument which partly explains and 
complements a map, and partly requires a map to 
explain and complement it." (Reynolds.) 

Let me say at once that I postulate good maps — 
though, unfortunately, such are rare. " The teacher 
should," it has been said, " dispense with the text book, 
and rely wholly upon the map, and lead the pupil to 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY 1 39 

discover the fundamental physical features of each 
country for himself" 

In the elementary schools of Berlin, the atlas used 
contains the following plans and maps, which are drawn 
up on the concentric plan. 

Page I contains six pictures and plans. The first 
figure is a perspective view of the inside of a schoolroom, 
and side by side with it is a map plan of that room. 
Then follows a perspective view of the whole schoolhouse, 
and map-plan of the building. This is followed by a 
perspective view of a portion of the city and its map-plan. 
The schoolhouse is again found on this map. 

Page 2 contains a larger perspective view of a land- 
scape, accompanied by a map-plan. We find the same 
schoolhouse and portion of the town here again. 

Page 3 gives an imaginary landscape, with its accom- 
panying map-plan. 

Page 4 contains a minute city-plan of Berlin. 

Page 5 gives the same plan of Berlin, but on a smaller 
scale, and taking in surrounding towns and villages 
within a radius of 12 kilometres. 

Page 6 gives a map of the district of Potsdam, of 
which Berlin is the centre. 

Page 7 gives a physical map of the province of Branden- 
burg, with Berlin as centre, and also a local map showing 
railways entering Berlin. 

Page 8 is a political map of the same province, and a 
local map of the city of Potsdam. 

Page 9 gives a physical map of Germany. 

Page 10 gives a political map of Germany, and a local 
map of the Thuringian principalities. 

Pages II and 12 are physical and political maps of 
Europe. 

Page 13. — Map of Asia. 



I40 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Page 14. — Map of Africa, with local maps of the Nile 
Delta, Cape Colony, and Cape Town. 

Pages 15 and 16. — Maps of North and South America. 

Page 17 contains the map of Australia and Oceania, 
with local maps of Victoria-Land, and an illustration of 
the formation of coral reefs. 

Page 18. — Palestine. 

Page 19. — Eastern Hemisphere. 

Page 20. — Western Hemisphere. 

Page 21 represents the Northern sky and chief 
constellations. 

Page 22 is devoted to mathematical geography. It 
contains illustrations of eclipses, of the earth's orbit, 
the solar system, and of phases of the moon. 

The map should be looked upon as an unknown region, 
in which the pupils make discoveries. Let me quote 
from an American publication : " It is premised that a 
good wall-map hangs in view of the class, a map which 
by either drawing or colouring shows not only topo- 
graphy and hydrography, but also the distribution of 
highlands and lowlands and the altitude and character of 
mountains. Any map that does not do this has no place 
in the schoolroom. It may have its uses as a reference 
map for ascertaining the location of towns, boundaries, 
railroads, etc., but as a foundation for the study of 
geography, it is not merely valueless, it is positively 
injurious. The pupils have before them the correspond- 
ing hand-map of their atlases. These, equally with the 
wall-map, should show the physical features." 

With reference to map-drawing, it may be pointed 
out that map-drawing is not a method of teaching 
geography, but rather of revising the facts already 
acquired by means of map-reading. Map-drawing is 
not, I consider, the best means of teaching geography, 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY I4I 

but it is certainly a valuable means of testing the teach- 
ing of geography, and of summarising acquired facts. 
In fact, the map-drawing would come at the end, not 
at the commencement of the study of a country. All 
geography teaching, in fine, consists of three steps — 

Observation, 

Description, 

Representation, 
and map-drawing is representation. 

The only "text book" required for the teaching of 
geography is a good atlas — but, unfortunately, that is 
just what we lack. Our school maps and our atlases 
should be such that a child placed in front of such a 
map would be able to state in detail the physical features 
and the concomitant political facts with as much accuracy 
as if he held a text book in his hand. Moreover, here 
the process would be an intellectual one; the child's 
reasoning faculties are being trained ; he is taught the 
moral significance of Nature's great law of cause and 
effect. You will find the si/houette, or outline maps, so 
much used on the Continent, of great use. The average 
map is not, I fear, drawn up by teachers ; at any rate, 
the relative importance of facts is not kept in mind. A 
map which contains every (or many a) town and hamlet, 
stream and hill, is bound to be, to say the least, in- 
conveniently crowded, and the great typical facts are 
obscured ; but in the silhouette map the teacher chooses 
his facts for insertion in the map, and so gives one a 
criterion of the teaching.* 

I think I should be meeting the wishes of many 
present if I, after having discussed the principles under- 

* Most school maps devote too much attention to political and 
too little to physical features, and are consequently of small use for 
a training in map reading. 



142 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

lying the methods adopted of teaching geography in 
other schools, were to state in general terms what 
appears to be desirable in teaching geography by 
means of object lessons. I do this not as wishing to 
suggest a syllabus which might hamper the individuality 
of the best teachers. This individuality I consider of 
much more value than an adherence to any system, 
however admirable. We must preserve that self-reliance 
and resourcefulness so characteristic of the English and 
Welsh teacher, even though by so doing we may fail to 
reach the level of continental teachers. 

It seems to me that the starting point must be made 
by giving the children definite, clear ideas of distance 
and direction — and, as you know, children Ictarn by 
doing. Let us then obtain a measuring tape, and let 
our pupils measure the classroom, the central hall, the 
desks, the playground, and so on. The next step will 
be to fix the idea of a plan of anything — but here we 
must overcome the difficulty of representing the play- 
ground on a blackboard, namely, of drawing to scale. 
Next would come picture-reading, as I have already 
sketched it. Plans and pictures, and, where possible, 
models of the class-room, the school, playground, adjacent 
buildings, and ultimately the town will follow, and the 
interest of this portion of the instruction would be 
increased by availing oneself of all points of historical 
interest in the town and neighbourhood, and illustrated 
by local photographs. As examples, one might mention 
the Runic Crosses of Llantwit, the Church of Llangynwyd 
and the story of Will Hopkin, Margam and its Abbey, 
Neath and its Abbey, and many another old-world tale 
that would make the lesson more vivid and real, and 
would kindle that love of home that is the basis of all 
true patriotism. 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY 143 

Next the Cardinal points would be taken up and fixed 
by the sun and shadow, next by the compass, and, lastly, 
by the North Star. Lessons on the lodestone and the 
mariner's compass would naturally come here. The map, 
and a comparison of it with a plan and picture, would 
follow and complete the work of the lowest class. The 
basis of the work of this class is to give the pupil a clear 
idea of his immediate surroundings — to crystallise, in 
fact, his experiences which hitherto were somewhat 
vague. The work of the next class is a continuation 
outwards from that of the first class. We increase the 
area of the circle in which the child lives, as, indeed, the 
child itself is doing. Here, in order to fix the child's 
ideas, we must avail ourselves of his experience and 
imagination. Of course, the ideal plan is to take the 
child to the things spoken of, but this is sometimes im- 
practicable, though, as 1 have already said, much may be 
done in this direction by means of class excursions. 
Again, we may sometimes take our pupils into the play- 
ground, or a neighbouring height, and show them a river 
lake, cape, bay, and so on; or we may after a shower, 
show them in the streamlets of the playground a con- 
fluence, tributary, estuary, and many other interesting 
phenomena, whilst the slow sliding down of the snow 
from the school-roof will give them a rough idea of 
the movement of a glacier. Many such examples 
will occur to all on consideration. But, after all, our chief 
aid here will be sand, clay, and paper-pulp modelling. 
As to tray, that may vary from a flat piece of wood or 
cardboard up to the zinc-lined trays so common now. 
Some of these trays have glass bottoms to represent the 
water, and in one case I saw, this bottom was painted 
blue — an ingenious idea ; in other trays, mirrors are 
placed as a base, and this, by means of its reflection, 



144 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

heightens the idea of water, and helps the child's imagina- 
tion — for these are all devices for aiding the child's 
imaginative powers. As for the material, silver sand, 
with a little salt added to it is coherent, clean, and easy 
to work. For permanent models, paper-pulp made by 
soaking waste paper in water is the best material, and 
when coloured and varnished, makes a pretty and useful 
model. Here, again, photographs and pictures should 
be used whenever possible, and it is very inadvisable to 
teach a child in this class anything that you cannot 
show him. The geography here again should be home 
geography; that is, the geography of the district around 
the school. Let me draw your attention in this 
connection to Scheme B in the suggested alternative 
courses in the Code. Here are the requirements for 
Class II.: 

" Home geography, e.^-., roads, rivers, and chief build- 
ing of the district illustrated by a map, and by the map 
of England." 

In teaching Class HI. geography, much latitude 
and variety are possible, and I should like to see as 
much variety as is feasible maintained in the tieatment 
of this subject. In any case, the parish and county 
would be the starting point, and these lessons, like all 
the others, would be illustrated by map, plan, and model 
of the district taught. Here the teacher and children 
might use the dip-arrows I have spoken of in their maps 
for illustrating the contour of the district. In the county 
of Glamorgan, object lessons on coal, tin, copper, and 
the manufactures dependent thereon, would probably be 
taken. This local geography would be illustrated, as 
far as possible, by sketches on the blackboard, photo- 
graphs, etc. From the county we should radiate out to 
the geography of our own land with the necessary model, 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY I45 

plan, and map. But, before we leave the home for the 
wider world outside, it will be necessary for us to decide 
whether we shall take, as our areas of investigation, 
artificial divisions such as, say, the six northern counties 
of Wales, or a natural division, such as the watershed of 
the Severn or the Dee. Whichever plan we adopt, we 
can apply the principle of the type. In discussing the 
North Wales coal-field our basis of reference will be the 
South Wales coal-field. We shall get our scholars to 
see the differences between that coal-field and the 
typical one — that of South Wales. Again the child's 
knowledge of the Snowdon range will be built upon 
his knowledge of the mountains of Glamorgan — the 
school district. 

Finally, in selecting our material for presentation, we 
must beware of overloading the memory with details, 
exact heights of mountains, lengths of rivers, populations 
of cities, etc., so that the child v/ill be unable " to see the 
forest for the trees," and his interest be effectually 
smothered. It is the characteristic facts that are of 
importance and value, not those details which we all of 
us in after life seek for, not in the lumber-room of the 
memory, but in the encyclopaedia or gazetteer. 

You will find that your own reading of books of travels, 
your own holiday journeys, will be supremely useful in 
vivifying your teaching. I remember a German teacher 
telling me that when England, Scotland, or Ireland 
forms the subject of the geography lesson, his boys 
appear to take a much keener interest than when, say, 
Russia or Spain was the subject. " You see," said he, 
" I have lived in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and I 
tell them what I actually saw, and so it comes home to 
them, and they realise that it is not mere text book 
information." 



146 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

For this paper I have drawn upon 

1. Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1892-3, Vol. I., p. 279. 

2. " European Schools," by Dr. Klemm (Appleton). 

3. "The Teaching of Geography in Switzerland and North 

Italy," by Miss J. B. Reynolds (Clay). 



APPENDIX 



The late Prof. Goodison, U.S.A., suggested that map drawing 
may be preceded by diagrams which summarise the present posi- 
tion of the child's knowledge, e.g. 

Arctic Ocean 

I 
Atlantic -t- Europe -♦- Asia 

t 
Mediterranean 

and a river and its tributaries may be drawn thus 

j I Danub e, 

II II 

and mountains of varying heights thus 

Alps 

Pyrenees 

— Beacons 



and the circulation of water thus 

vapour -1- wind -f- clouds 

I t 

evaporation rain 

I t 

ocean -<- river -h land 

or before completing America we might summarise our knowledge 
in this way : 



THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY 



147 




N. America. 



Isthmus. 



S. America. 



The population of some of the great cities of the world may be 
shown diagrammatically : — 



London 

New York 



-Paris 



-Canton 



— Berlin 
-Vienna 



— Cardift" 
-Swansea 



The twelve Prussian Provinces, with their relative positions 
will be readily recalled if presented as a diagram thus : — 





Schleswig 
Holstein 


Pomer- 
ania 


West 
Prussia 


East 
Prussia 


West- 
phalia 


Hanover 


Brand- 
enburg 


Posen 




Rhine- 
land 


Hesse- 
Nassau 


Saxony 


Silesia 





THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION. 

"In England the bias of anti-patriotism does not 
diminish in a marked way the admiration we have for our 
political institutions, but only here and there prompts 
the wish for a strong government, to secure the envied 
benefits ascribed to strong governments abroad. Nor 
does it appreciably modify the general attachment to 
our religious institutions ; but only in a few who dislike 
independence shows itself in advocacy of an authoritative 
ecclesiastical system fitted to remedy what they lament 
as a chaos of religious beliefs. In other directions 
however it is displayed so frequently and conspicuously 
as to affect public opinion in an injurious way. 

" In respect to the higher orders of intellectual achieve- 
ment undervaluation of ourselves has become a fashion 
and the errors it fosters re-act detrimentally on the 
estimates we make of our social regime and on our 
sociological beliefs in general." (Spencer) 

The Anglo-Saxon is a long suffering individual. He 
listens with stolid equanimity to the critic who tells him 
his genius is Scotch, his warriors Irish, and his literature 
Celtic. 

He acquiesces, too, in the sweeping criticisms of his 
army and its officers, does not dissent too vigorously 
even when the efficiency of his navy is impugned, and 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION I49 

accepts with resignation the statement that his system of 
training his children is utterly defective and inefficient. 

There is doubtless some ground for this criticism and 
the motives of it are often beyond cavil. To much of 
this criticism no exception can be taken, and I for one 
will not quarrel with the motives of the critic. National 
self-satisfaction is more dangerous in matters educational 
than even in matters military. 

Nevertheless a certain extravagance of statement, a 
lack of judicial balance is often noticeable and justifies 
the uncompromising attitude that educational Con- 
servatives adopt. 

Moreover this persistent criticism, this constant de- 
preciation, is apt to defeat its purpose by developing on 
the part of the public an indifference fatal to all reform. 

The cause of English education, we may imagine, is 
already lost, and, were matters as bad as we are told, 
then the resigned attitude of our people to educational 
matters is readily explicable. Instead of this somewhat 
indiscriminate depreciation, would it not be wiser to find 
out, not how far we are from the ideal, but how far we 
are from the attainable ? In other words how far we 
are behind what our rivals have shown us it is 
possible to do, under similar circumstances. 

Year after year the croak of the educational pessimist 
has been heard in the land, and has, I believe, blunted 
the sensibilities of our people to the legitimate claims of 
training. 

The chief objection to this constant croaking is 
that many people, knowing but little of the matter, really 
begin to think there is a great deal in it. Indeed, I fear 
many good folk have already accepted the situation as 
lost and their sole hope appears to be to turn our schools 
into work-shops, our children into carpenters and our 



I50 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

teachers into artisans. Thus shall we save our immortal 
souls by means of what they call manual training. Many 
people believe that English national education is in a 
thoroughly bad state, the schools badly housed, children 
overworked in school, and at home underfed and scantily 
clothed, the victims of parental cupidit)'; our teachers 
sometimes ignorant, often ill-trained or not trained at all, 
badly paid, subject to the arbitrary whims of an un- 
sympathetic and unskilled inspectorate, and to the 
tyranny of an ignorant and bigoted board of managers, 
and finally the whole controlled by a retrograde and 
bureaucratic central authority. Such is the picture 
occasionally placed before the British Public, outlined 
by suggestion and shaded by inuendo. What I propose 
to do is to examine this picture and the real picture, and 
from an examination of other pictures to find out how 
far the real picture falls away, not from the ideal, but from 
the practicable. 

It must not be forgotten that in education, as in 
morals and politics, ideals are never realised. We all of 
us have occasional dreams of beautiful school buildings, of 
benev^olent managers and heaven-sent teachers. Dreams 
are doubtless good for all. They lift us, for a moment 
though it be, from the contaminating mud of mundane 
matters, and paint faint halos round our brows which, 
though momentary, leave a slowly fading fluorescence 
and sweet aroma pleasant to look upon and stimulating 
to inhale. 

But as mere humans and not angels we must recognise 
the limitations of our efforts, and those limitations may 
for the nonce reasonably be placed at the achievements 
of our rivals. 

So that instead of comparing our schools, teachers 
and children, with those beautiful pictures we sometimes 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 151 

dream, we should compare them with the actual pictures 
our rivals can show us. There is one aspect of our 
primary education which has recently attracted a 
considerable amount of attention, and let me add rightly 
so too. I refer to the irregular attendance of children at 
school. This irregular attendance looked at purely 
from the theoretical point of view is simply appalling, and 
is one of the very worst forms of national waste which 
we as a people are guilty of Just think that every day 
that the English and Welsh schools open, there are one 
million children absent from school, or, to put it in 
another way, there are many more children absent from 
school every day here in England in this twentieth century 
than there were children absent from school in the days 
of Queen Elizabeth. I commend the last statement to 
our good friend the pessimist. 

In London too there are as many children absent from 
school every day as there are people living in Swansea. 
In many parts of Wales the number of children daily 
present in school is between 60 and 70 per cent, of the 
total, so that we shall agree in admitting that it is 
difficult to overstate the case of bad attendance. But 
that, after all, is not a judicial attitude to take up. We 
must control our criticism by an examination of the 
possibilities of the situation. The question then becomes 
not what the attendance should be but what it can be. 
What are our rivals able to do in this matter ? 

France and Germany are generally hurled at our 
heads as examples of what may be done in securing 
good attendance. 

But to this it must at once be objected that the basis 
of comparison between intensely bureaucratic states, such 
as France and Germany are, and such a land as England 
where local adminstration and control was first dis- 



152 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

covered and is most luxuriantly developed, is utterly 
lacking. 

The citizen of France or Germany has been reared 
under a highly centralised system of government. 

France is indeed termed a republic, but as has been 
well said " the principles upon which the French republic 
is professedly founded are the legacy of the Revolution, 
but it employs in their application instruments created 
by Napoleon and intended to serve the purposes of an 
imperial will." 

The German, like the Frenchman, has been trained to 
listen to the voice of the State as the word of the 
Almighty, and it would occur to him to disobey the voice 
of the State just as readily as it would occur to an English- 
man to question the efficiency of the British Constitution. 
Moreover Germany is enjoying the fruits of over a 
century of compulsory education ; we are beginning to 
reap the first fruits of 1870. Further it must not be 
overlooked that children have as a rule further to walk 
to school in England and Wales than either in Germany 
or France. In France practically every commune has a 
school, in Germany only i child out of every 25 walks 
more than i| miles to school. The German and French 
peasantry herd together much more than ours do. The 
single cottage and farm are almost unknown. The rural 
community live in the village and walk out daily to the 
fields, so that the homes are clustered round the school 
and the church. In America there is one school to every 
300 of the population, in France there is one to every 450 
of the population, in Germany there is one school to every 
874 inhabitants, in England one school to every 1,550 
inhabitants. 

What are the actual figures of school attendance in 
these various countries ? 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 153 

In Germany no such exact records as our schools keep 
are kept, for no grant depends upon the attendance of 
the children. The missing ones, however, are noted for 
the purpose of reporting their absence to the police. 
The official figures of attendance in German schools is 
generally given as 90 per cent, of the children enrolled. 
I think that is about correct, higher figures are only 
possible in states where children never get the measles 
and don't catch colds. The only children enrolled in 
German schools are those between 6 and 13 years of 
age in the country and between 6 and 14 years of age in 
the town. In England and Wales the attendance of 
children of a comparable age {i.e. over 7) is 87I per cent* 
In France, the attendance is not, I believe, so good as most 
of us are inclined to imagine. No such registers as ours 
are kept in the French school but twice a year only, once 
in summer and once in the winter all the children present 
in every French school on that date are counted and 
compared with the total enrolled. These are the figures :— 

Schools Dec. 7, 1891 June 7, 1892 Dec. 7, 1886 June7, i887t 
Public 78.6 per cent. 71.9 per cent. 80.1 per cent. 72.0 per cent. 
Private 86.5 do. 84.9 do. 87.9 do. 86.6 do. 

These figures prove that whereas our attendence is 
slowly improving that of France is deteriorating. 

The school age of French children is, as you are 
aware, from 6 to 13 years of age, so that the above 

*The method which until recently was adopted by the Board of 
Education for ascertaining this figure, was not mathematically 
justifiable, but for the purpose of obtaining an average number was 
not unsatisfactory. 

t There appears to be some doubt as to the accuracy of these 
figures, but such a method of testing the attendance does not lend 
itself to accuracy. I have seen figures as high as 88 and 90 per cent* 
quoted but not the authority. The above figures are given in the 
Report of U.S. Commissioner for 1893-94. Vol. I. 

10 



154 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

jfigures hardly justify the extravagant eulogiums of 
French regularity as compared with English. There can 
be no doubt I think that in rural France the attendance 
is but little better than in rural England, the School 
Attendance Committee in France which meets but once 
in three months as a rule, it is well known, is extremely 
lax in enforcing the compulsory law : out of over 40,000 
infringements of the law in one year only some 600 
cases ended in actual prosecution, — indeed a child may be 
absent four times during a month without any notice 
being taken of such absence. '^ It should be emphasized 
that the rigid registration of the English school is un- 
known in the French, German or American school and 
therefore the figures of attendance in England possess 
an accuracy to which the other figures cannot lay claim. 
Indeed very legitimate objection may be taken to the 
official figures put forward for both French and German 
schools. 

But to obtain a really fair comparison for our English 
schools we should take a democratic locally controlled 
system of education such as ours is, and ascertain the 
success of efforts to get the children into school in such 
a case. Any of the British Colonies would suffice, but 
we have recently heard so much of the American system 
of training that it will interest us more if we take the 
schools of the United States for comparison. 

Here are the bald facts. The French, German and 
English primary schools are open on an average at least 

* The reason for the poor attendance of the French rural school, 
besides the non-enforcement of the laws, may be perhaps gathered 
from these extracts from French Inspectors' reports. "Well 
manay;ed schools are always full ; " The value of the school is the 
value of the master ; attendance is regular only with good 
teachers." "With few exceptions absences are frequent only in 
poor schools ; there is no lack of pupils in good schools," 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 



155 



200 days every year. The average American school is 
open for only 143.3 days, and during the days the 
schools are open the average attendance is 6S per cent. 
Of course the length of the school year varies in 
different parts of the States from 191 days in Rhode 
Island to 69 days in Arkansas, but I have given you the 
average for the whole of the States. 

The result is that the average American child 
gets quite two years less of school training than does the 
English, French or German child. It is only fair to 
point out that in such comparisons the immense area 
tells against America. 

Herewith I attach the figures for various countries of 
the world showing the percentage ratio of the average 
attendance to the number of children enrolled on the 
school books. These figures are taken from Vol. II. of 
the U.S. Commissioner's Report for 1898-9. 



Austria Hungary . . 


Per cent 


Date 
1897 


Ratio of No. of 

children enrolled 

to population 

I5-0 


Germany 


90 


1896 


18.0 


Switzerland .... 


88.2 


1898 


20.7 


Bombay 


78.9 


1898 


2-95 


Japan 


7944 


1897 


9-31 


Cape of Good Hope . 


77-35 


1898 


8.89 


British Columbia . . 


63.29 


1896 


16.09 


Manitoba 


61. II 


1896 


24.96 


New Brunswick . . 


55-7 


1898 


19.77 


Nova Scotia .... 


5446 


1897 


22.39 


Ontario 


56.34 


1897 


20.86 


Prince Edward Island 


60.58 


1896 


20.29 


Quebec 


70.60 


1896 


13-30 


Mexico 


67.04 


1897 


. 4-63 


Cuba 


63.87 


1899 


5.41 



156 



SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 



Costa Rica . . 
Argentine . . 
Chili .... 
Peru .... 
New South Wales 
Queensland . . 
South Australia 
Victoria . . . 
West Australia . 
New Zealand 
Tasmania . , . 



Per cent. 
82.83 

80.75 

65.69 

70.88 

65.6 

68.5 

60.9 

56.72 

77.64 

8.3.76 

56.31 



Date. 
1897 

1898 
1898 
1897 
1897 
1899 
1899 
1898 
1899 
1898 
1899 



Ratio of No. of 

children enrolled 

to population. 

9.01 

6.22 

3.68 

1. 21 

17.24 

21.78 

19.15 

20.18 

10.16 

18.71 

15-86 



So much for school attendance. Let me now direct 
your attention to another matter, namely, the early age 
at which our children leave school. The Blue Book 
shows us that only some 20 per cent of our school 
children remain in school above Standard Four. There 
can be no doubt that our children leave school too 
early and unfortunately at the most critical period of 
their life when their characters are beginning to be 
permanently moulded by the good influence of school. 
No one can regret more than I do the early age at 
which our children leave school, but again it is necessary 
to distinguish between what we desire and what we can 
gain. Is not this early leaving a symptom not of a 
bad school system but of a bad economic system which 
compels the parent to eke out a miserable salary, far 
indeed from a living wage, by the petty earnings of his 
child? This system of child labour is the most 
extravagant system in the world. The nation that 
tolerates it is living not upon its earnings but upon its 
national capital. Your children are the most per- 
manent and certain national asset you have and, if you 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 1 57 

spend that, take my word for it, you are no longer 
solvent. 

In France barely half of the children in the primary 
schools remain there until they are thirteen.* An 
increasing number leave at 1 1 when they obtain the 
certificate of primary studies which is merely a sort of 
glorified labour examination. In Germany, children 
may be excused attending school if their parents plead 
poverty, though to their honour be it said, that is not 
often done, f The German parent has, I believe, a keen 
sense of his duty towards his child. In Posen however 
the power of the landlords is so strong that the legisla- 
ture has been compelled to legalise the employment of 
children of school age as shepherds. 

In America, an observer writes that 50 per cent, of the 
children leave school before they are ten years of age 
and of boys even a greater percentage. The reports of 
State Superintendents, too, afford full evidence of this fact. 
Over and over again they bewail the early withdrawal 
of children from school. One Superintendent assures 
us that the average age of the children in the schools 
is between 8 and 9 years old. The American boy, 
precocious and assertive as he is, objects to being taught 
by a school ma'am when he has obtained the mature age 
of ten. 

There is another matter that has received much 

* Many are withdrawn on the score of poverty, and others for 
the purposes of agriculture. 

t In Berhn, 1,900 pupils of the elementary schools were in 1891 
definitely excused from school at the close of the seventh year (at 
13 years of age) owing to the poverty of the parents who needed 
their children's aid. In 50 families it was conclusively shown the 
misery was so great that the children had to be excused at 12 years 
of age. 



158 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

attention in the past, though I am glad to think 
that the need for such attention is rapidly dis- 
appearing in England. I refer to the half-timer. In 
Wales, as you know, this is an extinct species. I can 
remember a few specimens as a lad a quarter of a 
century ago. At present there are 6"] in all Wales. 

There are about 100,000 half-timers still left of which 
56.8 per cent are in Lancashire alone. 

In other countries, the factory half-timer does not 
flourish as in England, largely because the factory 
s)^stem is not so fully developed,* but the agricultural 
half-timer is a very widely scattered species. In 
Germany there are over 600,000 of them. In France, 
too, they are not rare t and in rural America the fact 
that the school is only open for 3 or 4 months every 
year is fairly conclusive evidence of how numerous a 
certain modification of the species is in America. The 
Commissioner for the State of Georgia in 1896 writes 
that he calculates that 250,000 children of school age in 
that State do not attend school. The greater part are in 
rural districts where a majority of the children labour on 
the farm. Besides, as he says " the school houses in the 
country are so uncomfortable that the schools must 
be held in the Spring and Summer." 

One is apt to overlook such facts when visiting the 
big city schools. We forget the back-woods when in 

* In Berlin there are factory half timers as well as ordinary half 
day schools organised to meet the deficiency of school places. 

t Official regulations have been issued for the organization when 
necessary of half-time schools, and a French Minister of Education 
ordered that the departmental educational authority should arrange 
the school hours in summer so that a portion of the children's 
time might be utilised _at home and so prevent the withdrawal 
of them by parents in summer time. 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 1 59 

New York. Out of 3,232 schools which the State of 
CaHfornia possessed in 1892 no less than 3,121 were built 
of wood, and even in New York State only 1,900 schools 
out of 12,000 were built of stone or brick. 

These facts, I think, justify my argument that on the 
whole the difficulties of English education are neither 
different in quantity or kind from those of other 
countries, and you know it does help one along the 
weary and heavy road of duty to see the footmarks 
which other wanderers along the same road have made. 

One is apt sometimes to despair of the future of our 
land when one thinks of the difficulties facing our rural 
schools, for without an efficient system of rural education 
no country is safe. 

How rarely is the rural school popular ! It is simply 
tolerated, rarely loved. But even in this it is perhaps 
some slight satisfaction to observe that the rural school 
is no better loved abroad. It has the same difficulties 
to face, lack of funds, weak staff, and the competition of 
the land for the child. 

Let us listen to M. Guizot, the great French Minister 
of Education, speaking of the task of the rural teacher : 
" However sir, as I well know, the foresight of the law 
and the resources at the disposal of public authorit)' will 
never succeed in rendering the humble profession of a 
communal teacher as attractive as it is useful. Society 
could not reward him who devotes himself to this service 
for all that he does for it. There is no fortune to gain; 
there is scarcely any reputation to acquire in the difficult 
duties which he performs. Destined to see his life spent 
in a monotonous occupation, sometimes even to encounter 
about him the injustice and the ingratitude of ignorance, 
he would often grow disheartened and would perhaps 
succumb, did he not draw his strength and his courage 



l6o SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

from other sources than the prospect of an interest im- 
mediate and purely personal. It is necessary that a 
profound sense of the moral importance of his work 
sustain and animate him, and that the austere pleasure of 
having served men and secretly contributed to the 
public good become the noble reward which his conscience 
alone can give. It is his glory to aim at nothing beyond 
his obscure and laborious condition, to spend himself in 
sacrifices scarcely counted by those who profit by them, 
and, in a word, to work for men and to look for his reward 
only from God." Such a noble appreciation as this is 
should be heard in every land where rural teachers live 
and labour, for no man needs the comforting words and 
the helping hand more than the rural teacher. 

You know we are all apt to place ourselves upon one 
pedestal and the remainder of the universe upon another. 
I remember a German rural teacher telling me how he 
envied the life of the English rural teacher, with no priest 
to w^orry him nor sectarian prejudices to fight. He 
thought all English schools were undenominational, and 
he evidently had formed a somewhat roseate opinion of 
English rural school life. 

The German rural teacher has several advantages but 
he has also disadvantages as compared with his English 
confrere. His managers are often the local squires and 
farmers, and they are allowed to fix the hours when 
school is to open. They do so, sometimes fixing it as 
early as 5 or 6 a. m. and closing at 9 or 10 a. m., so that 
for the remainder of the day the children may be free 
for farm work. Another interesting duty of many a 
rural German teacher is to collect his own salary, which 
comes occasionally from as many as lO to 18 different 
sources. Some of us know the difficulty of obtaining 
money from one source, what then of 18? Then again 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 



l6l 



extraneous duties are exeedingly common in Germany, 
both those of organist and sacristan. Moreover the local 
pastor or priest is also the local school inspector, a com- 
bination by no means happy in the eyes of the German 
teacher. ^But these are minor difficulties ; the real 
difficulty of the German rural school is the lack of funds 
and therefore of sufficient accommodation and staff. The 
normal type of rural school in Saxony and many other 
parts of Germany is the half day school, in most cases 
simply because there is no room and no staff for all the 
children. Here are some remarkable cases of under- 
staffing in Posen. 



Locality. 


Classes. 


Pupils 


Palmnicken 


2 


• 293 


Astrawischken 


I 


• 171 


Mechlin . 


I 


• 173 


Punitz 


I 


• 175 


Sakran Turawa 


I 


• 171 


Petersdorf. 


4 


. 808 


Alstaden . 


I 


. 172 



Even in Rhenish Prussia I found a school of over 90 
children varying in age from 6 to 13 all in charge of one 
teacher. In 1896 there were in Prussia 92,001 full sized 
elementary classes but only 78,431 class rooms for them. 
The remaining 13,570 had either to share a classroom 
with another class or attend half-day. 

Here is a summarised statement of the actual condition 
of things in Prussian schools to-day. To give every class 
in Prussian schools a teacher of its own and to reduce 
each class to the normal size of 70 or 80 children to one 
teacher would necessitate at the present moment the 
appointment of 20,000 more teachers. That is the ex- 
tent of the understaffing in Prussian schools. In 



l62 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

many parts of France there is of course understaffing, but 
on the whole one must achnit that in this respect, at any 
rate, our French neighbours show aii admirable example 
to their rivals.* In Prussia with a population of thirty- 
two million there are 78,959 teachers ; in France with a 
population of 38-J millions there are 151,563 teachers; in 
England and Wales with a population of 3 1 millions 
there are 62,085 certificated ( or provisionally certiiied) 
teachers. To this number should be added 30,000 assis- 
tant teachers qualified under Article 50 of the Code, for 
it should be pointed out that 20 per cent of the French 
teachers possess only a somewhat similar academic 
qualification. These are the young teachers who, having 
passed the brevet elemoitaire but have not beeii trained, 
are appointed on probation by the Inspector.! 

*In France there are 102,486 teachers for 100,815 classes. Of all 
French classes 88"9 per cent had less than 50 and on the other 
hand one per cent. had more than 70 children to one teacher, and a 
class of over a liundred children to one teacher is not unknown 
even in F" ranee. 

t Indeed the vast majority of French teachers do hold a State 
certificate, but it is only the brevet eihiien/ aire, which may be 
passed at 16 and of which the "oral and written tests should not 
in any case go beyond the mean of the courses of study of the 
highest class in the primary schools." This examination is one of 
the conditions preceding entrance to the Training College. 

The qualifications of all French teachers in the year 1896 

were : 

Brevet Elementaire. Brevet Superieur. No Diploma 
107,083 2>Ar:>77 9,931 

The teachers with no diploma generally hold the Baccalaureate 
of the University of France which, however, it should be remem- 
bered, is hardly the ecjuivalent of the Bachelor's degree of an 
English university. 

Thus we see that nearly 70 per cent of all French certificated 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 1 63 

Many wrong impressions exist, I think, as to 
American education ; in some respects tiie American 
schools are, I believe, leading the world, but, on the other 
hand, there can be no doubt that there is a lack of solid- 
arity, so to speak, about American education. The goods 
for sale are in the window of the shop, whereas in 
Germany and Switzerland, the leading pedagogic centres 
of the world, the best goods are in the back, and the 
best work done is often that of the country schools. The 
American country school is generally a wooden building, 
opened for a few months each year, and the teacher of 
one year will probably not be the teacher of the next. 
Young girls anxious to get to college keep school in this 
way and so earn the wherewithal to satisfy their 
ambition. 

Many of these young women, so far as I can under- 
stand, have qualifications just as interesting as our* 

teachers hold only the inferior diploma, though the majority of 
these have been through a Training College and failed to pass the 
final examination or brevet sicperietir. This failure does not 
incapacitate them from becoming teachers. 

* The State Superintendent for Pennsylvania thus writes in 1893 : 
" In too many districts the directors have yielded to the temptation 
to reduce the tax rate to less than a mill, and to run the schools on 
a cheap plan by hiring cheap teachers. The statistics on this point 
are startling indeed. The total number of college graduates em- 
ployed in the public schools is 284. The graduates of State 
normal schools, academies and seminaries who teach in the public 
schools is 7,064. Hence 17,991 teachers have never enjoyed the 
advantage of a full course of study beyond the public schools. Some 
of these by private study and by partial courses at normal and other 
schools have risen to the rank of those holding professional and 
permanent certificates, but the startling fact remains that over half 
of the teachers of Pennsylvania (12,975) hold the provisional 
certificate, and ■>lmost a myriad of them (8,979) never had any 



164 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

much despised Article 68. Indeed I have beard of one 
American teacher being only 15 years of age and there- 
fore ineligible for approval under that much abused 
Article. Our Article 68 has been compared to an 
animated broomstick. But really it would seem at 
present that this class of teacher is the only alternative 
to the appalling understaffing of the German school or 
the meagre salary of the French and German rural 
school teacher. Under present financial conditions the 
country school cannot be worked without the help of 
either monitor or Article 68.* In Germany the master 
often avails himself of the service of a monitor and 
trains this lad up to be ultimately a teacher. One of 
of the leaders of German pedagogy and a country teacher 



training outside of the common schools. The provisional certifi- 
cate carries on its face the evidence that the holder's quahfications 
are not up to the standard in all the branches to be taught and 
especially not in the theory and practice of teaching. Nor can it be 
expectedthatpooi human nature shall exemplify'all the virtues of the 
educational decalogue at salaries varying from 12 dollars to 25 dollars 
per month. Some future historian will record it as the marvel of 
the ages that in the closing decade of the nineteenth century many 
parents were willing in the rich commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
to intrust the education of their children into the hands of persons 
whose services were not considered worth the wages of a common 
day labourer." " If the schools exist only for the employment of 
teachers then it may be right to appoint the daughter of a citizen 
for the reason that he is a taxpayer, or a cripple, because he has 
no other means of earning a livelihood, or a fellow who gets 
periodically intoxicated, because in this way his relatives can most 
easily help him and his to bread." 

* It is more money the rural school needs all over the world. 
'These country schools" writes a State Superintendent "are in- 
adequate, many of them inferior, some of them almost worthless 
and it is impossible to improve them to any appreciable extent 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION l6$ 

to boot has recently strongly advocated the introduction 
of the English pupil teacher system into the German 
rural school. Then in France, as I have already pointed 
out, many of the teachers are not fully qualified; and in 
America Dr. W. T. Harris, their greatest authority, has 
strongly advocated the introduction of the Lancasterian 
system into the American rural school* So that after all 
the English monitorial system has its friends even in 
America and Germany. Even in Chicago itself you will 
find a similar system flourishing though there the teachers 
are called by a prettier name and are employed all day 
not half day in the schools. 

As a matter of fact any system of training which in- 
volves small classes, such as the country school and the 

without more money. It is needless to try to shut our eyes to 
this fact. All efforts of school officers to improve them must 
continue to be fruitless without more money. There is perhaps 
nothing in the State to be more regretted than the insufficiency of 
the country schools. The money spent annually in the maintenance 
of these schools is proportionately small. The amount does not 
exceed two and a half dollars for each pupil in attendance on them 
including the graded schools of the State. The graded schools run 
about nine months to the year while the country schools will not 
average more than three. This is a burning shame and a cruel 
wrong to the boys and girls of the State who live in the country and 
are limited principally to the country schools for their education." 

* " I think that the answer to this (the difficulty of the ungraded 
school) may be found in the adoption of some form of the 
Lancasterian or monitorial system — using it sparingly and under 
careful supervision. The more advanced pupils may be set to 
instruct the backward ones to a certain limited degree. However 
this must not be attempted except by teachers who are skilful and 
full of resources. Otherwise the process or method will fall into 
the same ruts that the old time system fell into. We do not wish 
to restore the pupil teacher system nor see a too extensive use of the 
monitorial system. But invention has not been exhausted along this 



l66 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Kindergarten (and one would like to add, all schools), 
can only be worked under present financial conditions 
by employing unqualified teachers. The ideal and the 
practical again He far apart* 

I was reading the other day an account by an observer 
of a school he had visited in South Germany. 

The article wound up by a report of a short con- 
versation with the head and other teachers, in which the 
German teachers volunteered information as to the status 
and salaries they enjoyed. These salaries would have been 
high even in England. I have also seen American 
salaries of £300 to X700 quoted. Of course such salaries 
no doubt are obtained in America, and occasionally in 
Germany, just as they are in England, but such are by 
no means an average salary in any one country. In the 
matter of buildings again our best Board Schools, are, I 
doubt not, comparable in every respect to the best schools 
anywhere else in the world. On the other hand, England 
has no monoply in poor school buildings. 



line. There is unlimited opportunity for devices which shall em- 
ploy the bright pupils in making easy steps for the backward pupils 
and in testing their progress. We have seen the evils of the Lan- 
casterian system in filling the ranks with poor teachers. The 
modified Lancasterian system, which I believe useful in ungraded 
schools, and to take the place of the mischievous system of partial 
grading in many village schools demands before all that the teacher 
shall be better than ordinary. The mere routine teacher will not 
serve the purpose, nor have we any use tor the apprentice teacher 
or the half cultured teacher of any kind." And elsewhere he says : 
"In my opinion we have something to learn from this monitorial 
system. The Kindergarten and the ungraded school in rural dis- 
tricts can it seems to me adopt a form of the Lancasterian system 
which would serve a good purpose." 

* Here is an extract from an official report on some rural schools 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 1 67 

However, be the quality what it may, in this matter 
quantity is essential. In England there are more than 
sufficient school places for all children of school age. 
In Germany the half-day school is organised to meet the 
deficiency of school accommodation. So far as I know^ 
there is no English town or city which, owing to inadequate 
school accommodation, has had to do what the cities of 
Berlin and New York have both had to do — that is, resort 
to the half-day school so as to avoid their future citizens 
being absolutely destitute of a school education. But for 
America the figures are appalling. (See page 34). 

That peculiar mental twist called bigotry or narrow- 
mindedness is not confined to the British Isles, and one 
must not imagine that the religious difficulty of which 
we hear so much and see so little is peculiar to our land 

The religious difficulty is felt just as keenly in France 
Germany or America as in England. 

In Germany practically every primary school is a de- 
nominational school. Religious instruction is complusory 



of Connecticut : " Coming now to the description of the work of 
the teachers of the ten ungraded schools, we find it said of only 
one that her work was fair ; that one is a graduate of a Massa- 
chusetts normal school. All the rest were 'hearing lessons,' they 
were not ' teaching.' Two were waiting with a sweet patience for 
the children to learn their lessons, one was absent 'necessarily,' 
taking examinations, it was reported, in a professional school while 
his younger brother, a boy about 17, was going through the routine. 
To several classes, which read perfunctorily from texts in history 
or physiology, no instruction was given either on the subject-matter 
or on the reading, except possibly the mis-pronunciation of a 
word ; in only one or two instances was there shown ability to ex. 
press thought with a pen ; the penmanship, as has already been 
said, averaged very low ; the air was stifling ; the outhouses would 
better be left undescribed." 



l68 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

and, as a rule, the school is either Protestant, Catholic or 
Jewish. The fact that so many German Protestants 
are Lutherans saves the situation from becoming intoler- 
able, though to Free Churchmen and Agnostics it is all 
that. The priest or pastor is both correspondent and 
inspector, and exercises a predominating influence over 
the school which is often strongly resented by the teacher. 
In France all public schools are secular, and no dogmatic 
religion is allowed. Nevertheless, the loyalty of the 
French Catholic to Mother Church is so keen that to him 
these secular State schools are impossible, and so, side by 
side, competing more than successfully with the public 
schools is the system of private Catholic schools, receiving 
no help whatever from the State, inspected by State 
officers, and actually training to-day one quarter of all 
the school children of France.* The church secondary 
schools, too, unaided by the State, are increasing rapidly 
at the expense of the lycee, the State secondary 
school. 

France is even to-day strongly Catholic, and the re- 
cuperative powers of the Church have often before been 
demonstrated, so that this growth of Church Schools is 
by no means inexplicable. But how explain the still more 
noteworthy fact that in the United States a similar set of 
facts confronts us ? There you have not so much the 
Catholic community, though they are doing much, but 
the great German and Scandinavian Lutheran com- 
munity of the States maintaining schools in which dog- 

*The State primary schools of France had of the total enrol- 
ment in — 

Per Cent. 

1881-2 81.6 

1886-7 80.4 

189I-2 76.8 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 1 69 

matic religious teaching is taught, and in opposition to 
the public secular common schools. The Commissioner 
of Education estimates that 15 per cent, of all the 
children of school age are enrolled in these schools. 

Thus you see our religious difficulty is in no sense 
peculiar, nor does it appear that the inauguration of 
universal secular schools solves the difficulty. 

Finally, let me say something as to the teachers. Only 
thirteen per cent, of the German teachers are women, 
fifty-five of the French are women, sixty-six of the 
English, and sixty-nine of the American teachers are 
women. 

The salary of the average American male teacher is 
£109 per annum, and of the average English male teacher 
£125 per annum, and of the average German male 
teacher (in 1896) BjJ'J per annum. The American 
woman teacher gets on an average a salary of £93 per 
annum, the English woman teacher gets £84 per annum, 
and the German woman teacher £61. In other words 
the female teacher in America gets eighty-six per 
cent., in Prussia eighty per cent., and in England sixty- 
seven per cent., of the salary of the male teacher. The 
smaller difference in America is probably due to the re- 
latively higher efficiency of the bulk of the female as 
compared with the bulk of the male teachers. 

Other points must be borne in mind, such as the shorter 
time during which the school is open in America, the 
varying value of money, the absence of pensions in 
America, and the fact that French, English, and German 
teachers are entitled to such. There is no security of 
tenure in America : complete security in France and 
Germany. Further, all rural schools in Germany pos- 
sess a school house and garden, and often other land is 
allocated to the use of the schoolmaster, as well as firing, 

II 



I/O SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

SO that including these the salaries of German teachers 
are — 

City. Country. 

Males .... £96 . . £64 

Females .... £66 . . £54 

Teaching is a popular profession as is shown by the fact 
that one-fifth of all German teachers are sons of teachers. 

In France the schoolmaster's salar)' is low, but im- 
proving.* A country school-master earning a salary of 
£60 per annum would consider himself very well off, 
especially as he would be ex-officio the mayor's secretary 
for which duty he would secure another £20 per annum. 

The status of both German and French teachers is re- 
latively high, and second only to the clergyman's in the 
one case and the mayor's in the other. 

Their status is certainly higher than that of the rural 
English or American teacher. 

The German teacher is pedagogically the finest trained 
teacher in the world, indeed, in my opinion, he is over- 
trained. The incubus of educational tradition is heavy 
upon him ; so impresssed has he been by the Credos of 

* The primary teachers of France are divided into five classes 
according to experience and quaHfications, and the salaries paid by 
the State are — 

Men Women 

Fifth Class . . . £40 , . . £40 



Fourth Class 
Third Class 
Second Class 
First Class 



£48 

£60 
£72 
£80 



£48 

£56 
£60 
£64 



If in charge of a school of three or four classes the teacher gets an 
additional £8, and if the school has four or more classes then ^16 
additional salary is granted. The pay of " assistants " is £^2 per 
annum. French teachers are also allowed lodging money in 
addition to the above. Small additions are sometimes made by 
the community to these suras. 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION I/I 

the profession that his self resource and reliance have 
been seriously warped, and this attitude is reflected in 
his pupils. There is a lack of spontaneity and variety in 
the German school. The children are rarely trained to 
resourcefulness and independence, and the result is that 
when they leave school they are helpless and rapidly de- 
teriorate into the indifference of an uneducated class. 
There is, I admit, something singularly impressive in the 
high uniformity of German life but, at the same time, it 
has grave defects, and though this great wave of German 
nationalism by its very momentum overwhelms obstacles 
yet it lacks those eddies and ripples that give life and 
character to the stream. 

"It would seem" says an American writer "that 
Germany is the pedagogic nation, the educator of the 
world, not only in schools but in the organisation of 
armies, the conduct of wars, also in the development of 
manufactures, the division of labour, among its people 
and in the building up of a commerce." Whereas of 
England he .says "England is the classical land of 
historical reform^s, of vigorous individuality, of creative 
associations, of self goverment and self administration, 
the land of practical purposes." * 

* Prof. Weber of Steglitz thus sums up his experience of our 
higher school. "The EngHsh system cares little about the 
acquirement of manifold knowledge by the pupils, and the scientific 
treatment of the subjects, but it tries before all to fulfil two tasks. 
Firstly to develop the physique of the pupil, to make him in all re- 
spects healthy and capable of resistance and to harden him against 
physical and moral injury. This having been accomplished, the 
teacher's aim is to develop in the vigorous body an independent 
firm character ; he will accustom the boys to absolute truth, candour 
and resoluteness; they must quickly and independently find the 
right thing and learn to execute. In a word the English master 

ucates ; the German rather instructs." 
ed 



172 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

In the French school the same uniformity without, 
perhaps, the fine spirit of the German schools is observed. 
There is practically no difference in curriculum or 
organisation between one school and another in France. 
The French people it has been said cannot work without 
a programme and so there results a singular uniformity 
in French schools. 

One third of all German teachers come from the farm- 
ing class. They are trained in small provincial towns 
and their rural sympathies and tastes are fully developed 
by their upbringing and training, and they are in close 
touch with their environment. 

In England you know how rarely even to-day this is 
the case, and, as far as one can see, the country pupil 
teacher will soon be a thing of the past. Not rarely, in- 
deed, English country teachers are town reared and 
trained, and they have unwillingly drifted into the 
country school where they await the turn of the tide to 
pitch them high and dry into an urban school. 

Our Training College accommodation is, as you know, 
very inadequate, whereas in both France and Germany 
the supply of trained teachers meets the demand, so 
that whereas in England only fifty-eight per cent, of our 
certificated teachers are trained in France and Germany 
they are nearly all trained. 

Of American teachers only one-sixth of the demand 
can annually be supplied by the Training Colleges. 
Generally the women teachers are more often trained 
than the men. The American female teacher flourishes 
in the progressive States, e.g., in Chicago only six per cent, 
of the teachers are males, and in New York city only 
eight per cent. This preponderance of female teachers 
has been said to produce a lack of virility and strength 
in the discipline of the schools, and it is given as the 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 1/3 

main reason for the early age at which boys leave school. 
The greatest variety possible exists amongst American 
teachers. Only a small proportion are in any sense 
trained, and the Training College accommodation, such as 
it is, is very inadequate. The courses of these normal 
schools vary enormously, some of them are true normal 
schools with a two or four years' course, but many of 
them are simply secondary schools where lectures on 
teaching may sometimes be heard. These give their 
pupils diplomas to teach, which may or may not be 
accepted by the various School Boards. The vast 
majority of American school teachers are untrained, and 
their qualifications vague and various. In many States 
more than half the teachers have received nothing more 
than a primary school training. In New York State, 
out of 33,000 teachers only 1,115 teachers hold the State 
Superintendent's certificate, and 4,000 hold a normal 
school certificate, the remainder are licensed by the 
officers of the local School Boards.* 

Teachers, like School Superintendents, have in the past 
been appointed on a political ticket rather than on a 
pedagogical certificate. 

The Superintendent of American schools is not always 
the expert some of us imagine he is. 

* The State Superintendent for New York writes :— 
" If the American school system is to successfully cope with the 
circumstances which confront it, and the still more trying circum- 
stances which will confront it, it must be equipped with a more sub- 
stantial teaching service. Perhaps one teacher in five or one in 
four is a professional. The force is too largely constituted of young 
girls, or persons who are unable to prosecute any other employment 
successfully. Two-thirds of the number who are now teaching will 
have ceased to teach in five years. Four-fifths of the newcomers 
are immature, physically and mentally, and are inadequately pre- 
pared for such a trust." 



174 THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 

It is the opinion of American educators themselves 
that there is no real profession of teaching in America, 
and that until such a profession is established matters 
educational will not be satisfactory.* Whereas in Ger- 
many and France, the professional life of a teacher is 
about twenty-five years, in America it is not five years. 
In fact, teaching is taken up by many young American 
men and women simply as a stepping stone to higher 
things. An American writer states that "a preparation 
in pedagogics for the profession is almost entirely want- 
ing ; in fact the principle has been enunciated that a 
teacher in the public schools need not know more than 
he must teach, and that a knowledge of his text book is 
sufficient." Further on, the same critic observes: "The 
office of teacher in the average American school is 
perhaps the only one in the world that can be retained 
indefinitely in spite of the grossest negligence and 
incompetency." 

This judgment is, probably, of too sweeping a character, 
and the truth doubtless lies somewhere between this 
pessimistic view, and the highly optimistic view of 
American education which some of us have. The statis- 

* " A large majority of the teachers, especially in the common 
school districts, enter upon the work of teaching as a temporary 
makeshift, and consequently lack that interest and enthusiasm that 
would obtain if they intended to follow teaching as a permanent 
occupation. The idea is prevalent in many places that teaching is 
the only business that requires no antecedent preparation or ex- 
perience. Hence any ignoramus, equally ignorant of pedagogy and 
law, may be permitted to practice teaching ignorantly, in order that 
he may get the neces!.ary means for the practice of law intelligently. 
... So long as inferior field hands are recognised as superior 
teachers, so long will the third-grade class continue to dominate 
the other classes in number and influence." (State Superintendent 
of Arkansas, 1893 4.) 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 175 

tics of American education are a wholesome corrective 
to the unrestrained enthusiasm engendered by American 
educational exhibitions. 

Besides the short school year, poor attendance, early 
age of leaving, absence of real profession of teaching, 
inadequate equipment of teachers, and insufficient school 
buildings, there is also to be observed in American 
education that lack of respect for constituted authority 
and time-tried methods which invariably characterises 
the unskilled teacher. The average American teacher 
has no professional conservatism, and hence is peculiarly 
susceptible to fads and crazes. The New York "Evening 
Post" thus expressed itself: "The history of education in 
this country for the past fifty years has been a history of 
crazes, the method craze, the object lesson craze, the 
illustration craze, the ' memory gem! craze, the civic 
craze, calling upon children of eight to ten for informa- 
tion as to custom houses, post offices, city councils 
governors and legislators, the story-telling craze, the 
phonics craze, the word method craze, the drawing and 
music craze, besides the craze for letters and business 
forms, picture study and physics; now arrives manua 
training. Happy is the community where those in charge 
of the schools have maintained their clear judgment 
above all these fluctuations, shiftings, and tinkerings, 
and have kept in view the real object of school educa- 
tion." 

I have heard a German educator speak of what he 
called English fads, such as manual training, physical 
education, Kindergarten training, and theheuristic method, 
in much the same strain. I did not agree \\'ith him, 
but is it not indeed time that the curriculum of the 
school should be made absolutely independent of any 
transitory fluctuations in public opinion ? As Alfred 



176 THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 

Fouill^e put it : " Blunders are worst in education 
because whole generations are compromised." 

The only bulwark against such experiments, such 
possible blunders, is the existence in the schools of a 
corps of professional men and women. Until England 
and America possess such a corps as Germany and 
France possess, their school will always be at the mercy 
of the crank and faddist. It is characteristic of the 
amateur in education to imagine that reform of curricula 
involves improvement in the schools, whereas the only 
permanent reform in a school system is that consequent 
upon more adequate financial resources and a more 
thorough professional training of the teacher. The 
introduction of this or that element into the curriculum, 
without a corresponding increase in the professional 
efficiency of the teacher, is certain to produce not greater 
order but chaos in the school. Over and over again the 
American school curriculum has been extended or re- 
modelled without a thought as to the limits of capability 
of the teacher, and the results have generally been, and 
were bound to be, disastrous. American educators them- 
selves have pointed this out. 

As a contrast observe how slight are the modifications 
that have been introduced into the curriculum of the 
German Volkschule during the last fifty years. There 
can be no doubt that a reasonable conservatism is char- 
acteristic of the good teacher, wherever he be found, and 
feeling as he does how much is in his keeping, nothing 
less than the whole future of his country, such an attitude 
is, I venture to think, natural and rational.* 

* The " Revue Pedagogique Beige " thus wrote ; " For ages the 
progress of school education was retarded by general indifference ; 
to-day, on the contrary, the most formidable obstruction it encounters 
is the itch or the passion for innovations. In all countries, mon- 



THE PESSIMIST IN EDUCATION 1 77 

I hope I have not unduly emphasised the weaknesses 
of foreign education. I am only anxious to bring out the 
fact that our own troubles are not peculiar. 

Finally, let me say that some of the best schools in the 
world are, I believe, American schools. Their Kinder- 
gartens are unrivalled, their drawing and nature study 
superior in some respects to those of French schools, and 
finally the whole system of training adopted in the 
American school develops self-resource, self-reliance, and, 
above all else, a keen love of education for its own sake. 
An American never considers he is too old to learn. 
They are supremely proud of their schools, and they are 
spending upon them freely, even lavishly. Even their 
bad attendance has another aspect, as Superintendent 
Rice of New York long since pointed out : " I doubt 
the expediency of laws compelling parents and guardians 
to send their children and wards to the public schools, 
or to provide education for them at home or at private 
schools, until the persuasive power of good teachers, 
commodious and comfortable school houses and free 



archie and democratic, everybody, from emperor to pastry-cook, 
has upon the subject of education ideas which in his view will re- 
generate humanity. Naturally the ministers of public instruction 
have their ideas too, and endeavour to put them into practice. 
Almost everyone wishes to break away from what he is pleased to 
call the old usages, that is to say, from the experience of centuries, 
and to build up the course of study on a new basis. The lack of 
practical experience causes people to get astride of some of the 
strangest hobbies. One is wholly engrossed with gymnastics, 
another with chemistry ; this one is inflexibly bent upon teaching 
anatomy and physiology to future seamstresses ; that one is of 
opinion that the youthful residents of the Rue de Temple will not 
be able to get along without some well-grounded knowledge of 
farming." 



[78 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

schools have been tried and tried in vain." * That is a 
perfectly reasonable view, though subsequent experience 
has convinced us that such attractions have but slight 
effect on a mind with but a weak sense of parental 
obligation. 

In Germany children relapse into an indifference to 
education that can, I think, only be completely accounted 
for by the repugnance the compulsory law engenders. 
It seems almost impossible to find the median line 
between compulsion and freedom. 

Finally, in America, there is a certain public pride in 
their schools on the part of the American people which 
is pregnant with promise, and I would that I could see 
signs of a similar public spirit in our own land. 

In bringing before }'ou these facts I have been in- 
fluenced by what I believe are the highest considerations 
for English education. I hold that to exaggerate and 
unduly emphasise the best points of foreign systems of 
education, and to bring into an unfair pre-eminence the 
difficulties of home education, is to produce a feeling of 
despair and ultimate})' indifference in the best friends of 
education. A man's soul is saved, not by continually 
telling him he is a sinner, but by occasionally insinuating 
that he is a possible saint. 

I deplore as much as anyone the many weaknesses 
of English education, and there is no more ardent pro- 

* And the State Superintendent for Missouri says : " My e.xperi- 
ence has been that in the districts characterised by hberality towards 
their schools, non-attendance is reduced to the minimum, and in 
such communities there is no demand for a compulsory law. The 
demand for such a law comes from those districts in which the 
schools are of the least value, the teachers employed are unworthy 
the position they occupy, the school term just as short and the taxes 
as low as the law will permit." 



The pessimist in education 179 

gressive in matters educational than I am, but do not let 
us take up an impossible position. Let us recognise that 
it is reform, not revolution we want. Reform, step by 
step, year by year, here a little and there a little, is what 
we desire. We have had so many glowing pictures of 
foreign education placed before us recently that I, for one, 
felt the task before us becoming more and more hopeless. 
In the glowing colours of the foreground we forgot the 
shadows in the background. And so I have tried to 
remind you that there is a background. 

National systems of education are not comparable. 
Some of the most valuable elements in any system are 
not capable of comparison. 

How, for example, can one compare two systems, such 
as that of Germany and the United States. The one is 
the perfected engine of a bureaucratic State, moving 
onward with all the statel}' majesty of a great river, the 
other is the somewhat rough weapon forged by a young 
people, and intended to develop citizens, not soldiers. 
The spontaneity, variety, and self help of the democratic 
State is characteristic of the American and not of the 
German school. Let us not forget that these somewhat 
mechanical virtuesof regularity of attendance, long school 
life, etc., are after all but poor compensations for the self 
resource and independence that should be, and generally 
are, characteristic of the good school in the democratic 
State, and let us beware of setting up the excellencies of 
the French and German schools as ideals for our schools. 
There is nothing more dangerous than slavish imitation 
in education, and nothing would be more disastrous to 
English education and to our national character than to 
attempt to model our schools on the German school. 
To attempt, for example, to introduce German discipline 
into our schools would be more than a crime, it would be 



l8o SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

a mistake. The national characteristics that have made 
EngHsh people the rovers and colonists of the world 
would be killed by such discipline. 

I would that all of us should have a lively faith in the 
future of our schools, so that w^e may listen with un- 
ruffled equanimity when our good critic next indulges 
in a pessimistic croak on the future of the British people. 



THE VILLAGE SCHOOL. 

There are few subjects of to-day which excite more 
attention and discussion than the rural problem. What 
has been termed the rural exodus has excited the oratory 
of the politician and the moralizing of the philosopher. 
One might imagine that because the population of 
Oxfordshire has diminished and that of Middlesex 
increased England was going rapidly to the dogs. A 
played-out country is ours. 

However, an invariable corrective to such pessimistic 
bilious attacks is a look round the world. Precisely the 
same state of things is seen in France where the dearth 
of agricultural labour is said to be producing a very 
serious state of things, in Germany where the urban 
population is growing even more rapidly than in England 
at the expense of the rural population, and lastly in 
America where the transference of population from the 
country to town has been enormous. Is it not a more 
reasonable attitude to see in this world-wide phenomenon 
merely the evolutionary change consequent upon the 
nineteenth century industrial and commercial revolution ? 

A century back, America and our Colonies, even 
indeed many parts of Europe, were so remote as to be 
negligeable quantities from a commercial and industrial 
standpoint. Steam and electricity have altered all that. 



1 82 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

The world has become very small of late years. The 
price of my loaf no longer depends upon the manual 
labour of my neighbour Mr. Jones, the farmer, but upon the 
productive capacity of the land in Dakota, and one can 
no more quarrel with that fact than one can with the 
equator. It would be the act of a lunatic to try to grow 
grain on Ben Lomond ; it is the part of the wise world 
citizen to grow grain on those blessed spots of our little 
earth where " she yieldeth most abundantly." 

But more than that, the discoveries of the last century 
having liberated men from the soil, the same number of 
men are no longer required to produce the food necessary 
for the race. So enormously has the productive capacity 
of each man been increased by recent discoveries in 
agricultural science that one man can now produce as 
much from the same area of land as ten men could 
formerly. What is the result ? The first result is obvious 
namely there are nine men left free for other work. 

Only in a badly organised community should a 
wastage occur. These producing machines — men — must 
be utilised for other communistic purposes. The pro- 
ductive capacity of a man varies according to opportunity 
and training, more particularly training. An educated 
people is invariably capable of a pro rata higher pro- 
ductive capacity than an untrained people. 

In America for example it has been shown that the 
productive capacity of each individual in the State of 
Massachusetts is higher than in an}' other State and this 
in an even higher ratio than their opportunities of train- 
ing in that State. 

But other things being equal the productive capacity 
is at its maximum in the towns, the great centres of 
industry. Hence it appears that this rural exodus is in 
obedience to a true instinct, to a natural law ; and these 



THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 1 83 

various societies for the staying of this new exodus are 
simpl}'- flying in the face of Providence. They cannot 
put back the hands of the clock, the movement is as 
impossible to stop as is the natural evolution of man. 
This movement to the city is simply a further step in the 
evolution of society. Until the equilibrium fixed by 
nature between land and city population has been 
reached this exodus will continue. 

When that equilibrium has been reached the relation- 
ship between town and land will be recognised. Then 
the town and the State v/ill recognise their dependence 
upon the land. The country will be fostered as the 
source of their raw material, whether it be grain or men. 
The absolute necessity of the State maintaining its 
supply of raw material pure and undefiled will compel 
the careful nourishing of the land and its children. 

But at present this connection is not generally seen ; 
neither the town not the State feels at present under 
any special obligation to the country. In Germany 
and France it is true that the State has recognised to 
some extent its special obligations to the rural com- 
munity, but here at home practically nothing is done to 
acknowledge this obligation. 

All over the civilized world to-day the rural school is 
suffering. No matter where one looks one sees the same 
difficulties, the same poor opportunity, the same neglect. 
This may be some comfort. We are at any rate not the 
the only offenders. On the other hand no number of 
wrongs will ever be a right ; and further, I think that, if 
anything, this neglect of the rural school is more acute 
and less justifiable in England than anywhere else in 
the world. I fancy that matters are not so bad in 
Germany and Switzerland ; perhaps not in France ; in 
America I believe they are quite as bad, but then one 



184 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

must always remember that the true area of comparison 
with America is not England but Europe. 

Of these difficulties of the rural school, difficulties 
which, as I have said, face it all over the world, only one 
is really fundamental, and that is lack of funds. Until 
adequate funds are provided no nostrum however perfect 
pedagogically will heal the sore. 

The country school, it is true, has one immense advan- 
tage over the town school in its children's fuller experience 
of nature, but this cannot be utilised and developed in 
the present conditions of the average country school. 
How rarely, for example, does the teacher possess a bright 
cheerful room and varied apparatus by means of which 
he can attract the children to school ! 

Is it not too often the case still that the country 
school is bare and comfortless, with unhygienic desks 
and unsanitary surroundings, in winter too cold, in 
summer too hot ? Little wonder perhaps that the 
children are not attracted, and that the parents, with 
besides none too fine a sense of obligation to their 
offspring seize the first and every vjpportunity to keep 
their children from school. Thus we hear the cry from 
the teacher of France, England and America " What can 
I do for children who attend so spasmodically and 
irregularly?" 

If the teacher were of the best such irregularity would 
kill his zealous efforts, but too often indeed the staffing 
of the rural school is not of the best. Wherever one 
looks one finds the staff poor either in quality or 
quantity. 

In America the country teacher's qualifications are 
often appallingly low, in England the staff of the rural 
school is largely composed of unqualified teachers, and in 
France and Germany, we find both half day country 



THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 1 85 

schools and enormous classes of over 100 children to 
one teacher, who avails himself of the help of monitors. 

Then, again, the ignorant rural school manager or 
trustee whose sole aim in life appears to be to " save the 
rates " is no peculiarity of England. We have read 
much of his doings in the States ; particularly of the 
ingenious way in which he provides for needy relatives. 
In France and Germany they are more fortunate, as the 
rural school in both cases has its income provided 
largely by the State, and its finances controlled by the 
State officers. 

But still another reason for the unpopularity of the 
rural school all the world over is, I believe, to be found 
in the curriculum. I imagine that every school in the 
world should have a curriculum peculiar to itself and 
conditioned by the environment. 

The vocational aim must be recognised in the school 
curriculum. It is true that all schools must train citizens 
of the State. But surely that does not necessitate a 
uniformity of curriculum. The farmer is no less a citizen 
than his brother of the town, though the life of the latter 
necessitates a more extensive and intensive use of books 
and pens, whilst that of the former needs rather keen 
eyes and ready hands. The common school curriculum 
is, I am convinced, far too literary. The three R.s are 
desirable and perhaps even necessary implements for 
the farm labourer to have at his disposal. Keen and 
trained powers of observation and of execution are 
absolutely indispensable to him. The present supremacy 
of the three R.s in the rural school must be challenged. 
The essential elements of the rural school curriculum are 
observation, expression, and power of doing. In place 
of the three R.s let us instal the three H.s as supreme in 
our school — the training of the heart, the hand, and the 

12 



i86 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

head. No course in nature study, no set of school 
excursions unless taken as essentials and not mere em- 
bellishments will suffice to vivify the training of the 
country school. Sets of object lessons and doses of 
cottage gardening do not touch the really vital problem 
of curriculum. These are mere flavourings, the food still 
remains the same unpalatable stuff. The curriculum of 
this school should neither be agricultural nor horticultural 
but real and based upon the experience of the children. 
The law of apperception demands this — not the Society 
for The Improvement of Agricultural Education. 

Such a revolution of curriculum demands, however, a 
radical change in the training of rural teachers. Let us 
glance for a moment at the training of the country 
teacher. It is to be observed, in the first place, that, just 
as at present the rural school is too often but an imitation 
of the urban school with its detailed classification and 
grading, so also there is no difference whatever in the 
training of the future rural and urban teacher. Indeed 
one may go further and say that the Training College of 
to-day turns out only one kind of teacher, namely the 
urban class teacher. Should such a one subsequently 
drift into the rural school he will find that his cherished 
ambition to become a head teacher has led him far from 
the plums of the profession. Yet there is no school in 
the world that calls for such resource, self help, and all 
the qualities that make up the good teacher as the village 
school. 

It is depressing indeed under present conditions to 
find, as one often does, a brilliant teacher lost in the 
village school, whereas should it not be that under proper 
conditions nowhere can be seen so stimulating a sight as 
that of the gifted teacher who \\d.s found\)\s village school? 

That the Training College accommodation is fully 



THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 1 8/ 

adequate to the demand in France and Germany and 
singularly inadequate in England and America is well 
known, but it is not generally recognised that the chief 
sufferer from this state of affairs is the village school. 
It is the poor man who ultimately pays for every form of 
national insufficiency. When further it is remembered 
that the training received is that specially suited for 
the town and singularly inappropriate for the country 
teacher it must be confessed that this question of pro- 
fessional training of teachers has become a most serious 
matter for the rural community. These schools, at any 
rate, need the best teaching only. In the town school, by 
supervision and mutual help amongst the teachers, the 
lame comrade can be carried home ; in the country he 
dies by the way — good Samaritans do not pass that way. 
And I think the effort to improve the rural school by 
introducing new "turns" into the programme is bound 
to be futile until the artiste himself is prepared for them. 

We cannot afford to convert these schools, already the 
victims of poverty and neglect, into research laboratories. 

But leaving the question of adequacy let us look at 
the outfit of the country teacher. And for the better 
understanding of this question of outfit let us consider 
what are the attributes of the highest teaching. 

The German teacher is the most completely trained 
teacher in the world ; yet his training has not generally 
developed those attributes of self-help, independence, 
resourcefulness, and power of doing which are the 
characteristics of the best teaching, at any rate in a 
democratic state. 

Both French and German teaching suffer from this 
lack of initiative, this dependence upon authority. I 
cannot go into detail here but I will state that in my 
opinion the training of our teachers, like that of the 



1 88 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

German teacher, is too literary, and does not concern 
itself sufficiently with developing in its students the 
power of observing and the power of doing. Our Train- 
ing Colleges should be professional schools and not 
secondary schools. At present the main portion of the 
Training College curriculum is entirely secondary, and 
only a fraction of the whole is devoted to purely pro- 
fessional work. Even the professional side does not 
develop sufficiently the power of doing, and of observing. 

Leading German educators have recently been crying 
out for a change of the curriculum in the direction 
indicated. They contend that the future teacher should 
receive a Realschule {i.e., a secondary school) training 
before proceeding to the Training College for the purely 
professional studies. 

If this plan were adopted at home then many of the 
difficulties at present attending the training of our future 
rural teacher would be obviated. It should be stated at 
once that the training of the future rural teacher must 
certainly not be inferior to that of the urban teacher, 
only different. The requirements of both teachers are 
essentially similar ; they both need resource and the 
power of doing, but the rural teacher needs also a special 
professional training in the pedagogic problems of the 
ungraded school. 

The over classification so often met with in the rural 
schools is largely due to the fact that the experience of 
the teacher too often is limited to the highly graded 
school. Hence it would appear desirable that here, as 
in Germany, every Training College should have attached 
not only a graded but also an ungraded school. But 
the essential matter in this question of training country 
teachers is the development of the teachers' powers of 
observation and doing. 



THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 1 89 

So long as the teacher's training lacks this, so long 
will the unpractical character of our school curriculum 
appeal to the farmer and labourer. How then is this 
power of doing, of resourcefulness, to be developed ? 

Well, to me it appears that there is only one way and 
that is by giving the curriculum of our Training College 
a much more scientific character than it has at present. 
The deficiences of our Training Colleges in means for 
scientific training and manual dexterity are admitted. 

We want our teachers, especially our country teachers, 
to have passed through, say, a two years course in purely 
professional and scientific work. 

This scientific work would, I take it, cover the elements 
of chemistry, physics, geology, and biology, and the 
heuristic or inventive method should be no longer a term 
to be got up for the certificate examination but a real 
tool in the hands of a trained and skilled workman. The 
art, too, of such a training would not be highly finished 
studies in design or ornament but that needed in the 
class-room ; so that the teacher may draw with ready 
skill before his pupils whatever the exigencies of the 
moment demand. One would then hear no longer a 
teacher's complaint that he cannot teach elementary 
science because he has no apparatus, nor would the 
futility of advocating the teaching of nature study in the 
village school appear. It has been urged that for such 
teaching no special training is necessary, — it is what every- 
one can teach if he only has the knowledge. This is I 
venture to think a serious mistake ; nothing indeed can 
be taught well by an inexperienced person. In science 
teaching in the primary schools, moreover, it is the train- 
ing itself that is of real permanent value ; the facts 
imparted are of secondary importance. We teach 
our children the truths of science more for their moral 



IpO SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

than their utiHtarian value ; the facts as facts quickly 
disappear from the child's mind, but the child's attitude 
towards the world around him has been permanently 
modified by a training in nature study. 

It is to develop this scientific attitude towards the 
world outside on the part of both teacher and pupil that 
I so strongly advocate the necessity of a more scientific 
training for our teachers. English people are char- 
acterised from their neighbours by their individualistic 
development. There is nothing which so excites the 
admiration of the cultured foreigner as this self resource 
of the Saxon. We must see to it then that our schools 
do nothing to warp but everything to develop this 
attribute which has made England what she is. 

A literary training will never develop this characteristic 
as a scientific training can. 

By a scientific training one means of course not only 
a training in the practical work of the scientific labora- 
tories, but also in whatever exercises develop the power 
of willing and doing. This is no new demand; it is what 
Froebel asked for and what is now so often seen in 
practice in our best infant schools. 

There are other difficulties too of the village school. 
Too rarely does such a school possess a library though 
no school needs one more. 

Moreover the lack of a further training than the 
primary school affords has had a bad influence, as parents 
have no encouragement to continue their children's 
education. In Wales and in America the inauguration 
of the rural secondary school promises to exercise a 
distinctly happy influence on the country schools around. 

Would it not be better to substitute for the present 
capricious and vexatious areas of school administration 
a larger area and one that would contain at least one 



THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 19I 

secondary school and its natural feeders? Whether that 
area be accepted or not two facts are certain, first that 
the present areas of administration are much too small, 
and second that the present system of rating for school 
purposes is utterly unfair, and results in that appalling 
poverty which is the main cause of all the troubles of the 
village school. I see no reason whatever why the 
financial unit should coincide with the administrative 
unit. Local control is consistent with State support. 
Moreover there can be no doubt that it is the duty and 
privilege of the towns to help the surrounding rural areas 
to obtain an efficient system of education. As I have 
already pointed out this obligation on the part of the 
town, and of the State as a whole is not perhaps clearly 
recognised at present, but to those who have given a 
thought to the duties of the community and the mutual 
dependence of its various elements the matter is obvious. 
No State can be considered stable, much less flourishing, 
if any considerable portion of its people are growing up 
destitute of a thoroughly sound training physically and 
mentally. When further it is recognised that the country 
is the source of the virility and strength of a people it is 
evident how^ serious this defective training of the village 
school has become. 

The fact is a niggardly economy is sapping the strength 
of our people, and will continue to do so until the State 
as a whole and the towns in particular recognise their 
duty in this direction. One would say that the training 
of country children is bound to cost much more than 
that of town children and yet the fact is it is made to 
cost less. In France the largest towns, i.e., towns above 
150,000 people, receive no help from the State in the 
training of their children, whereas more than three-fifths 
of the cost of the country schools is defrayed directly by 



192 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the State. We must in this matter " bear one another's 
burdens ; " we cannot detach ourselves from our rural 
neighbours. 

We have said much of the troubles of the rural school, 
but what of the school master? 

His troubles indeed are implied in the former. The 
pleasures of rural life have formed the theme of many a 
philosopher's musings and poet's dreams, and some of 
us after spending a short time in these arcadian retreats 
return somewhat reluctantly to the rush and whirl of 
city life. Nevertheless there is no class of men who 
need the sustaining help of a conscious rectitude and of 
devotion to duty than the country school master. Too 
often is he made the victim of sectarian bigotry or 
personal animosity, his life constantly harassed by 
aggressive ignorance, and his best hopes dashed by 
parental stupidity. He sees the plants over whose care 
and nurture his best energies have been ungrudgingly 
spent torn ruthlessly from his garden just when the buds 
were beginning to appear, and the fruit of many years' 
toil showing itself Too rarely are his efforts appreciated. 
He and his school are looked upon as necessary evils, 
that must be tolerated but never loved. It is indeed a 
gloomy picture the average village school. One finds 
oneself continually using grey tints in painting this 
picture. 

Nevertheless, there are brilliant exceptions where the 
school has become the brightest spot in village life, 
radiating round it a bright glow of sympathy which 
penetrates every cottage in the village. But such are 
too rare, and when they do appear are evidence not of 
communistic loyalty and recognition of duty but of the 
triumph of character. In England the teacher commands 
the loyalty of the community by his own character, in 



THE VILLAGE SCHOOL I93 

Germany by his position. The one is incidental, the 
other fundamental. 

That the state of the village school is not altogether 
hopeless must be put to the credit of the village school 
master. He has not allowed his sordid and depressing 
surroundings to damp the ardour of his enthusiasm, his 
school is often a striking example of the old German 
saying that "As is the teacher so is the school." 

Some of the best training in our land to-day is given 
in rural schools, despite the poverty of funds and irre- 
sponsiveness of the niilieu. But this rich land of England 
has no right to expect such constant sacrifice from her 
teachers. " The labourer is worthy of his hire," and in 
nothing whatsoever — not even in her navy — can England 
with greater impunity allow a brainless parsimony to 
govern her, and to rob her children, especially her country 
children, of that training which is to make them worthy 
citizens of this imperial land. 



THE AIM OF THE SECONDARY 
SCHOOL. 

It has been said that we are the fools of prejudice and 
the slaves of habit ; or, to put it another way, environ- 
ment and heredity condition life. However, providing 
the habit is a good one, the more we are its slaves the 
better for our peace of mind. Life — wise living — is, in- 
deed, the conversion of aptitudes into habits, and the 
well-ordered life is that in which the daily round and 
common task have become routine, and so left the mind 
free for the more momentous matters of life. Unfortu- 
nately, this is not often the case ; the habits of most of us 
are only half-formed. Whether we shall take an um- 
brella or not on a cloudy morning, instead of being a 
matter of habit, becomes a subject of much mental 
questioning and discussion, and the energy required for 
more vital matters is dissipated on these trivialities of 
life. The real perspective of things is lost or distorted. 
The really momentous matters of life are decided with- 
out that consideration and judgment which is their due, 
and we too often find ourselves the victims of circum- 
stances over which we have lost control owing to this 
lack of foresight. 

Such a momentous matter is the task of educating 



THE AIM OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 195 

our boys. Did we devote as much time and thought to 
this matter as to some of the triviahties of Hfe, much dis- 
appointment and vexation would, I feel sure, be 
avoided. I sometimes think that modern life, with its 
rushing whirligig and kaleidoscopic changes, allows no 
time for thought on the vital problems of existence. 

But it is the really busy person who has most spare time. 
It is the man without definite aim and ideal that is ever 
complaining of lack of time and opportunity. 

Then, too, life seems so uncertain, you may put in your 
hand to pull out a plum or a stone, as fortune listeth. 
Why then devote much anxious thought to so uncertain a 
matter as our boys' future ? Because it is the only 
matter in your boy's life that is entirely in your hands, 
and, more than that, it is the one matter that the child 
has a moral right to expect. 

Every child in this land is morally entitled to the very 
best education his parent can give him, and no less. 
Therefore by the wise care or the thoughtless selfishness 
of your decision is your son's future decided. How many 
parents pack off their boys to a boarding school simply 
to get them out of the way, and consider their duty to- 
wards their boy completed when they have written him 
four letters a term, sent him some money for the tuck- 
shop and a highly indigestible cake? On the other 
hand, how many fond mothers keep their pet near them, 
carefully guarded from the rough winds of life, only in 
the end to leave him a tender plant all too weak to stand 
the rude buffettings of real life ? 

I believe that if more thought were devoted to this 
question of our boys' training, we should hear less of 
these criticisms so often heard of our schools and teachers. 
Were parents more conversant with the real problems 
and aims of education, we should have less criticism and 



196 SCHOOLS AT HOxME AND ABROAD 

more sympathy, and that is what we need most of all. 
Critics can wound poets and artists, but they can kill the 
the best efforts of the teacher. The very essence of any 
successful system of training — of education — must be 
absolute confidence of the child in his teacher. The 
greatest teacher that ever lived was He in whom His 
disciples — His pupils — had the most complete, the most 
implicit faith. Lack of faith is absolutely fatal to all 
high teaching. If, then, the pupil hears carping criticism, 
mean insinuation, and open doubt of his teacher, there 
can be no question as to what will follow. If a parent 
wishes to ruin the training of his child, then let him begin 
by criticising the school and the teacher. These are 
strong words, but true words are always strong words 
So the first lesson we must teach our sons is loyalty — 
real, uncompromising loyalty to teacher and school — and 
that will lead on unconsciously to the loyalty of citizen- 
ship and the State — loyalty to all good. 

It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to say that I am 
speaking with reference to all schools and teachers, not 
any particular school or teacher. 

But more than this really passive attitude is the 
positive attitude on our own part. It is not sufficient to 
write the precept — we must act the example. We must 
endeavour to take a keen, active interest in the school 
and teachers — in the actual training of our boys. We 
should take a practical interest in the lessons, in the 
games, and in everything that makes up the school-life 
of our boys. 

Let it not be forgotten that not half of the week is the 
pupil in the school ; the greater part is spent at home 
and in the street, where a thousand tiny hammers are 
beating him into shape and modifying his character. 
How careful, then, should we be to purify this home and 



THE AIM OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 197 

street influence, for it is obviously unfair to expect the 
school to obviate the defects of home or street. 

One of the most difficult problems in the day school 
is how to unify home and school life, so that instead of 
being two forces pulling in opposite directions, as they 
generally are, they may pull in the same direction for the 
common good, i.e., the welfare of the boy. 

Parents and teachers too often regard each other as 
natural enemies. Parents in Germany are not allowed to 
visit their son's schools without official sanction. 
"Parents," said an English public schoolmaster, "are a 
clumsy contrivance of Providence for the production of 
schoolboys." Too often parents regard schoolmasters as 
merely necessary nuisances, and the less they have to do 
with them the better they are pleased. That it is a dis- 
agreeable duty is seen in the fact that it is almost in- 
variably the mother who is expected to do it. 

But let us ask ourselves one other question. What is 
the object of spending all this money upon educating 
our boys? What purpose have we in view? 

It is just here that the fog is thickest. Once this 
question of aim has been settled aright, many of the so- 
called problems of secondary education disappear. 

There can be no doubt that the primary purpose of 
school training is character-building. 

The aim which we have in view in sending our boys to 
a secondary school is to prepare him for life, for real, 
universal life; not the life of the cloister or research 
laboratory, but for the daily life which we as citizens of 
this great empire have to live. He is to be trained, not 
stuffed with facts. 

If we could only get folk to realise that school edu- 
cation is a system of training, many of the misconceptions 
of the function of school life would disappear. The aim 



198 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

of the school is to turn out fine characters and trained 
intellects. A rare combination this — the fine character 
which is the product of the English public schools, and 
the trained intellect which is the product of the German 
gymnasium. Can we not hope to combine these? Both 
are equally indispensable. 

It is the possession of a trained intellect that 
distinguishes the leaders of life. Our great statesmen 
are not graduates of technical or commercial schools but 
of Oxford and Cambridge, where commercial subjects 
have hitherto been severely ignored. 

It is because Germany is annually turning out from 
her secondary schools so much trained intellect that I 
sometimes despair of the future of English commerce. 

If, then, fine character and trained intellect are our 
ideals, how futile, how utterly extravagant is it to send 
children to a secondary school for a year or two ? It 
is absurd to expect characters to be built and intellect 
trained under, say, four years. Either four years as a 
minimum or not at all, say I. Much better complete 
the boy's education in the primary school than send him 
for a top dressing to a secondary school, where his ideas 
of life may be unsettled, and a vague dissatisfaction 
engendered. 

Further, if this is the avowed aim of the school it is 
evident that what our boys learn is of the highest impor- 
tance. In drawing up the curriculum, it is not what 
subjects appear most useful, but which are the best 
means of training that must be selected. 

The cry for commercial subjects would be less often 
heard were the question of their utility as a means of 
training considered. Far be it from me to depreciate the 
study of science and modern subjects generally, but I 
must emphasize this point in the selection of subjects. 



THE AIM OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL I99 

No subject should be included in the curriculum of the 
secondary school which cannot be defended as an 
efficient mental weapon. 

I have no doubt that boys attending the school a 
short time before leaving for the office may find a 
knowledge of shorthand and book-keeping immediately 
useful, but I think it would be wiser if such boys were 
not sent to the secondary school at all. These boys 
have their duties in life to fulfil, and as clerks and minor 
officials these special technical accomplishments may 
prove of considerable value pecuniarily ; but the posses- 
sion of such accomplishments is absolutely no substitute 
for a trained mind. It is more leaders, more officers of 
commerce, that we look for from our secondary schools. 
Young men skilled in modern languages, in modern 
ideas, trained to attack scientifically all problems 
presented to them, that is the product we must look for 
in our schools if we would assure the commercial 
supremacy of Great Britain, That is the type of boy 
the German secondary school is turning out, a boy who 
knows London as well as a Cockney and who speaks 
English better, trained in the use of two modern 
languages and the necessities of modern commerce, but 
who cannot write shorthand nor use the typewriter. 

I remember the head master of a very large English 
higher grade school telling me that employers often 
came to him asking for a boy who could write shorthand 
or use the typewriter. His reply was that out of his 
couple of thousand pupils he hadn't one that answered 
the description, but, said he, "If you want an intelligent 
youth trained to think and quick to learn your methods, 
I can supply you." What we need in Swansea, what we 
need in England and Wales, is more skilled brain power. 

The only real national asset a country possesses is its 



200 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

stock of cultured minds and skilled hands. Coal mines 
and mineral lodes have a way of becoming exhausted, 
but the natural supply of brain materal, in the rough so 
to speak, is, as far as we can see, inexhaustible. 

Let me remind you that I said just now that the aim 
of the school should be a preparation for real life. 

This vocational aim of the school must condition the 
curriculum, and so I would assert that, in my opinion, if 
it can be shown, as I believe it can, that modern 
languages and natural science form as sound a basis for 
the school curriculum as a training in Latin and Greek, 
then in modern schools such curriculum should be 
drawn up. I strongly hold that the exigencies of modern 
life demand that our schools should turn out young 
Englishmen and Welshmen, and not young Greeks and 
Romans. 

Our boys should step out from the school fully armed, 
as a knight of old to the tournament, prepared to live 
their life in this twentieth century of ours. You have 
no right to ask a boy who has been living in lands and 
times two thousand years old, to breast the flood of 
modern life without a tremor. 

The public schools of England must do more for life 
than their meagrely-equipped modern sides now do. 

Let me say that I believe the future of the world is 
the possession of the land which has the greatest amount 
of skilled brain power at its command. I was studying 
the other day a most interesting set of figures showing 
in the various States of America that the productive 
capacity of the people in each State was in direct 
proportion to the amount spent on education in each 
State. Looked at merely as a commercial speculation, 
a community that invests its money in education is 
laying out its capital in the soundest commercial concern. 



THE AIM OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 201 

If you want to keep American bars out of Swansea, then 
put more money into your schools. 

Finally, let me point out that it is the bounden duty 
of the State to seek out from gutter and hovel, from 
palace and castle, those bright minds which " the Good 
God " scatters here and there over His world. For its 
own sake, the community cannot afford to allow these 
rare creations to die in cellars or run to waste on 
Scottish moor or Welsh hill. We must gather them in ; 
nourish and care for them, the only elements of 
progress. " We must leave no Giottos by the sheep- 
folds," nor no Ceiriog in the vales. How many mute, 
inglorious Miltons thus live and die for lack of oppor- 
tunity ! Yet, as Huxley so forcibly put it, "If the 
nation could buy a future Watt or Faraday for ^100,000 
he would be dirt cheap at the money." We in Wales 
have done and are doing our best to avoid this loss. 
Remember that it is these first years that are the 
troubled ones ; anon will come happier days when other 
labourers will have entered into our labours and bear 
aloft the good banner of education, of which our people 
are so passionately fond. 



13 



WANTED: A MODERN SCHOOL. 

Mr. Sadler has pointed out in his vakiable essay on 
the Prussian Secondary Schools for Boys (Special re- 
ports of Board of Education) that questions of curricula, 
programmes of studies, etc., occupy a much more pro- 
minent place in German educational discussions than 
they have hitherto done in England. It is an interesting 
fact in this connection that whereas Germany and 
America annually publish about three hundred educa- 
tional journals each, we in England cannot boast of one 
tenth that number. 

It is such facts as these that are the momentous ones 
in comparisons of national systems of education. Those 
mechanical virtues of regularity of attendance, long 
school life, lack of friction in administration which excite 
the enthusiasm of casual observers have their compensa- 
tions — their drawbacks. The beautifully sensitive way 
with which the French educational machine responds to 
the slightest pressure of the minister at Paris, and the 
unquestioned obedience of the Prussian parent to the 
school law, appeal directly to the teacher who in his 
intense admiration of the beautiful machine is apt to 
overlook the fact that it is a machine. These mechanical 
virtues have their \'alue it is true, but they have obvious 
limits and defects. However perfectly children may 



WANTED: A MODERN SCHOOL 203 

attend school, unless school life engenders in them a 
love of knowledge, self-respect, self-resource, and a 
general independence of character, its value will be 
incomparably inferior to another system, where children 
attend school perhaps less regularly but more spon- 
taneously, and where the child's self-respect and resources 
are engendered and developed throughout the whole of 
his school life. 

The only real basis of comparison between national 
systems involves a careful study of national temperaments 
and ideals. The question then becomes not " which 
system is the best" but "which system best fulfils its 
function." It must be remembered that the school is 
a political institution. States do not educate from pure 
philanthropy, but in monarchical States to make soldiers, 
and in democratic States to make citizens of their 
children. In other words, popular education is an act 
of self-defence on the part of the State. 

In comparing secondary education in Germany and 
England, it is not sufficient to show, as may indeed 
readily be done, that the curriculum of the Prussian 
gymnasium is deeper, wider, pedagogically sounder than 
that of the average secondary classical school in England, 
or that the attainments of the " graduated " pupil of the 
gymnasium are superior to those of the English pupil of 
like age. We must go further and show that the training 
received in the German secondary school is a better 
training for life — for the real life of to-day — than is the 
training given at the English school, and that therefore 
the pupil leaves school better equipped for the battle of 
life in Germany than in England. 

The aim of training may be thus stated : It is to 
produce fine character and trained intellect. Neither of 
these two essentials can be omitted. We demand of our 



204 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

schools the trained intellect, characteristic of the product 
of the German gymnasium and fine character character- 
istic of the product of our best public schools. The 
primary aim of any system of secondary school training 
is trained intellect and fine character. 

Any system which does not produce these jointly is 
defective. A fine character without a trained intellect 
is apt to be fearfully ineffective. The trained intellect 
without the fine character is a dangerous possession. 

It is unnecessary to labour the point that character 
building is the ultimate aim of all school training — 
primary and secondary. 

Fortunately that truth has long been recognised by 
English people. They have always insisted upon 
character as the criterion of fitness in teachers and 
statesmen, and I fancy that continental peoples, failing 
to recognise this truth, have often imputed to us an 
"unctuous rectitude" which we ill deserved. 

This recognition of character building as the primary 
aim of their work has been characteristic of English public 
school teachers, and it is undoubtedly to their lasting 
honour that, having seized hold of this fundamental truth, 
they have allowed neither the clamour of the multitude 
nor the advocacy of the specialist to turn them aside 
from this, their primary purpose in life. 

But in holding thus fast to the one aspect have they 
not perhaps rather failed to recognise in full the other 
essential aspect of training ? Trained intellect is neither 
more nor less indispensable than fine character. 

It is the trained intellect that characterises the leaders 
of life. 

Were the real aim of school training generally recog- 
nised we should hear less of this cry for commercial 
education. It is not minds trained to the solution of 



WANTED : A MODERN SCHOOL 205 

special problems that we need, but a mind that has been 
trained to attack all problems. The Germans laugh at 
our many fads and go on turning out of their schools 
annually these trained intellects. 

The German commercial school is a secondary school 
with a curriculum which has as its basis the study of 
modern languages and science, not shorthand and book- 
keeping. 

We pride ourselves on being a practical people ; we are ; 
we introduce a little book-keeping and shorthand with a 
dash of linguistics into the primar)' school curriculum 
and call it a commercial school. 

It is the amount of trained intellect at the disposal of 
the State that is the only criterion of the national 
strength. For its own safety a democratic State must 
needs give all its citizens a certain modicum of training, 
but for permanent stability — for ultimate success it must 
give its bright minds, its potential aristocracy of intellect, 
all the training at its disposal. Not by the number of 
its soldiers nor by the area of its possessions is the truly 
permanent greatness of a people gauged, but rather by 
the quantity and quality of its skilled brain power. In 
this aspect the supreme value of the educational ladder 
in a democratic State is fully realised. The State for its 
own sake must gather in its God-given bright minds, the 
nuggets scattered mid the quartz. We must leave no 
Chatterton in the attics, nor Ceiriog in the vales. 

These bright spirits are our national capital. Upon 
the permanent supply of these we alone rely for per- 
manent success. 

An Arkwright or Stephenson is worth many a gold- 
field to the State. But having gathered them in, the 
problem then becomes how may the State best utilise 
them for the general good ? How shall we train them ? 



206 SCHOOLS At HOME AND ABROAD 

And this brings us to the question of curriculum. 
This is a terribly vexed question — this question of 
curriculum. In Germany it has given rise to an enor- 
mous amount of discussion, from the Emperor down- 
wards. However it has gone beyond the academic stage 
in Germany, and has resulted in the setting up of various 
types of secondary schools which differ according as 
their curriculum is classical, semi-classical, or modern. 

F'irst we have the venerable classical school — the 
gymnasium corresponding closely to our public schools, 
but devoting less time to Greek and doing more for 
modern needs. This school possesses privileges which 
no other type of school possesses and is attended mainly 
by children of the highest classes of society only. 

The semi-classical school has no Greek, less privileges, 
and children of a lower social rank. Finally the modern 
school has no classics, few^ privileges, and scholars mainly 
drawn from the commercial class. 

In England and America such schools of special 
types, whose functions are based upon a careful and 
philosophical differentiation of curricula do not generally 
exist. 

In America, the high school with its electives and 
optionals, and in England the secondary school with its 
modern, its army, and its commercial side, endeavour to 
fulfil the same functions as all these different secondary 
schools of Germany. 

It has been argued by an American writer that, by 
the system of " electives," each pupil in a school may 
have a curriculum peculiarly appropriate to himself 
but not necessarily so to his neighbour, and so by this 
means the development of the child proceeds upon a 
natural plan and he enjoys at the same time the various 
advantages of a corporate school life. In other words, 



WANTED : A MODERN SCHOOL 20/ 

intellect and character are trained upon natural and 
therefore the best lines. The view is somewhat idealistic 
The true school like society is based upon a series of 
compromises between the individual and the communit}\ 
The father who sends his boy to Eton probably does 
not do so because he considers the curriculum peculiarly 
appropriate to his son, but because it is near enough to 
his ideal and at the same time approaches the ideal 
curriculum which his friend Smith has worked out for 
the young Smith. So each sacrifices something for the 
common good. The " elective " system, when the 
" electives " are fixed by the exigencies of external 
examinations or the whims of parents has, I venture to 
think, a most pernicious influence. The school as a 
whole has no curriculum ; it has a more or less " fortuitous 
concatenation " of subjects in its time table prescribed 
for it by outside bodies. The drawing out of such a 
time table is a marvel of ingenuity. 

Such a school curriculum lacks entirely that philo- 
sophical unity which is the first essential of a school 
course. Even a heaven sent teacher would fail to build 
character with such a medley of curricula. 

Our public schools too have gained nothing by their 
adoption of " sides." These offend every one ; the 
" classic " despises them and the true " modern " sneers 
at them. Such meagrely equipped sides are no satisfac- 
tion to modern needs. These "sides" have tended to 
destroy the unity of school life and have often produced 
a type of intellect which is in no sense characteristic of 
the English public school. They have largely failed too 
in their primary purpose ; they have not brought the 
public school appreciably nearer the public life. 

The cloistral attitude of the public school is as marked 
to-day as ever it was. These modern sides too have 



208 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

suffered from the contempt of the school as a whole and 
too often have resolved themselves into convenient 
receptacles for the inferior minds of the school. 

Would it not be wiser to recognise this and for the 
whole school to revert to the purely classical training of 
former days, but of course with a curriculum modified to. 
meet to some extent the exigencies of modern life, as 
does that of the gymnasium? 

But should these "exigencies of modern life" affect 
the curriculum of the school at all? If intellectual train- 
ing be the aim then surely it may be said a training in 
the classics may suffice. To this it must at once be said, 
school is a preparation for life. Our schools must, as the 
German Emperor put it, turn out young Englishmen and 
not young Greeks and Romans. The vocational aim of 
the school must be admitted and so, if it can be shown, 
as I believe it can, that modern languages and natural 
sciences afford as sound a. basis for the curriculum as the 
classical tongues, then the former must have the pre- 
ference, because of their higher vocational value. 

The school must prepare for life, for the real life of 
to-day. Our boys must be prepared to live their lives in 
this twentieth century and in this Imperial England. 

What sufficed fifty years agone is woefully lacking 
to-day. 

The attitude of our boys on leaving school towards life 
should be modern not classical ; they should be saturated 
with modern ideas, modern methods, modern problemsi 
and so their training must be modern. The experience 
of Germany has shown us that modern languages and 
science form an absolutely sound basis pedagogically for 
the school curriculum. 

What we need in England to-day is, firstly, more 
differentiation of type in our schools. Our schools must 



WANTED : A MODERN SCHOOL 209 

cease to be a " Jack of all trades and master of none ; " 
secondly our special need is a school of the modern type 
as seen in Germany. These schools are turning out 
young men who speak English and French. They have 
been trained too in natural science and the higher 
technique of commerce. They are fully equipped as 
officers of the great German commercial army. 

I remember a German boy of fifteen telling me in 
perfect English, which he had been learning some eighteen 
months, that he hoped to become a German merchant in 
London ; he spoke French quite as well as he did English- 
Compare this boy's chances, with his colloquial know- 
ledge of French and English, his training in higher 
mathematics and science, and in the higher technique of 
commerce with those of his rival the English secondary 
scholar. 

The modern language teacher in Germany will tell you 
" We are giving our boys as sound a training peda- 
gogically as can be given by the classical languages. We 
are training both character and intellect by this means. 
In teaching a modern language we endeavour to vivify 
the teaching by saturating our pupils with the foreign 
atmosphere. We want them to breathe the atmosphere 
to catch the characteristics of you English people, so 
that when our boys come to England, as they will do 
they will come not as strangers but as friends." 

And they are doing all this and more. These are the 
trained intellects that the German secondary school is 
turning out on to the commercial world every year, and 
it is from these schools, and not from the technical and 
special schools that English commerce will receive, if at 
all, its death-blow. 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION ON THE 
CONTINENT.* 

*The authorities consulled are: — 

" Education of Business Men," a Report to the American Bankers' 
Association, by E. J. James, Ph.D. (New York), reprinted in the 1S95-6 
Report of the Commissioner of Education, Washington. 

"Commercial Education in Europe," a Special Report in the 1S96-7 
Annual Report of the Bureau of Education, VVashin<:;ton, U.S.A. 

"Special Reports on Educational Subjects," by M. E. Sadler, Education 
Department, 1897. tic. 

Dr. E. J. James, now professor in the University of 
Chicago, addressing the American Bankers' Association 
in 1893, said :— " It is not far from the truth to say that 
there is no such instruction [i.e., commercial] given in 
England at all, at least such thorough, systematic, and 
advanced instruction as would justify our putting it in 
the same category as that of France, Austria, or Germany. 
It is in this department as in so many others. The genius 
of the people — so eminently commercial — the favourable 
situation of the country, and the many circumstatices 
which have combined to put England at the very head 
of commercial nations have also seemed at first to dis- 
pense with the necessity of giving time and labour to 
systematic school preparation for such occupations. On 
the other hand, the many unfavourable circumstances 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 211 

which have combined to prevent the growth of commerce 
and industry in Germany, France, and Austria have 
brought these nations to a recognition of the fact that 
thorough education along all these lines was the only 
hope of their being able to compete with England at all. 
The result has been what might have been expected. 
Owing to the superior education and training of her 
youth, Germany has been steadily diminishing the dis- 
advantages of her position, and English merchants are 
now awaking to the fact not only that German trade is 
increasing more rapidly than English, but that even the 
trade of England herself is passing into the hands of 
German merchants who have settled in London." I do 
not quote this American writer's words because of any 
novelty or point that they may possess but because they 
are those of an American and of a professor to boot ; 
moreover, they come from one of the very highest 
authorities on international commercial education. It 
has indeed been long recognised that we British people 
are gradually losing our commercial supremacy in the 
world's markets, and that unless something (but what, is 
not very clear) is done and soon too, it will have passed 
away from us to our more far-seeing rivals on the Con- 
tinent. 

It is a characteristic of the German people — this 
faculty of foresight. Bismarck, long years before 1870, 
foresaw and prepared for Sedan — so was this commercial 
rivalry with Great Britain foreseen and carefully prepared 
for. Whilst we were organising our primary education, 
Germany and France were extending and completing 
their systems of secondary, technical, and commercial 
education. To-day, whilst England possesses no organ- 
ised system of secondary, or commercial education, our 
continental rivals possess a practically complete system. 



212 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

where their youth are provided with so fine a weapon for 
the fight that their British rivals are, to all intents and 
purposes, unarmed before them. Let us glance at this 
armoury. 

It is now 130 years ago since the Vienna Board of 
pTrade called attention to the inadequate provision for 
a commercial training in the Empire, and the State 
founded a "Commercial Academy" for the education 
of merchants. It is not my intention to follow through 
its many years of vicissitude this admirable institution, 
the direct ancestor of the present " Vienna Commercial 
Academy." In 1872 the Austrian Government held an 
inquiry into the organisation of commercial schools 
which culminated in the Act of 1873, by which the 
commercial schools of Austria were divided into two 
distinct classes, higher and lower. By subsequent 
regulations, these commercial schools were divided into 
I. Lower or two year course schools, and 2. Commercial 
academies or three year course schools. These latter are 
open only to graduates of the Real schools and Gymnasia, 
that is to say, boys who have left the intermediate 
schools with the usual leaving Certificates. The lower 
commercial schools, which are very numerous, are open 
to all boys of 14 years, who have passed through the 
elementary schools. These latter are under the super- 
vision of special Inspectors, and are supplied with text 
books specially suited to their aims, these aims being 
mainly a thorough grounding in modern languages. It 
is to be noted that these Austrian commercial schools 
are not simpl}^ annexes, but corporate entities ; for the 
experience of Austria, as of other countries, has been 
that to try to develop a commercial course side by 
side with other courses in the same institution is to 
court disaster. It is found that such a system produces 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 



213 



a maximum o( friction with a minimum of result, and 
that finally the commercial course sinks into painless 
oblivion, the despised of teachers and taught. Speaking 
in 1892 of these lower commercial schools, the Austrian 
Minister of Education said : — " To bring about the 
establishment and extension of the system of schools 
with a two years' course is a necessity since commercial 
clerks have not hitherto been prepared professionally to 
an extent commensurate with the needs of the commercial 
world. Hence wherever communities, boards of trade, 
and commercial societies find suitable occasion for open- 
ing" such schools, the State should do all in its power to 
aid them in their laudable efforts." 

The most interesting school of commerce in Austria 
is the " Commercial Academy " of the city of Vienna, 
founded by the Chamber of Commerce in 1856. It had 
in 1 89 1 no less than 753 students in attendance, of whom 
115 were taking a one year's course, and 638 a three 
years' course. Of the 115 taking a one year's course, 
81 were between 17 and 20 years of age. And of the 
638 taking the three years' course 488 were between 
16 and 18 years of age. 

The one year's course is only open to boys who have 
completed their secondary school course, and the 
curriculum of this course is as follows : — 



PRESCRIBED SUBJECTS. 

Political Economy 

Commercial Geography and Statistics 
Commercial and Industrial Law 
Book-keeping and Correspondence 
Mercantile and Political Arithmetic 
Study of International Trade ... 

Study of products 

Life and other Insurance 



2 hours per week. 

3 

3 

6 

5 
2 
2 
I 



214 



SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 



ELFXTIVE SUBJECTS OF WHICH TWO MUST BE TAKEN AND ONE 

PASSED. 

French (using German as Medium of In- 
struction) ... ... 3 hours per week. 

French (using French as Medium of In- 
struction) ... ... ... ... ... 3 „ 

Enghsh 3 „ 

Italian ... ... 3 „ 

OPTIONAL SUBJECTS. 

Customs, Tariff Legislation, and Administra- 
tion ... ... 2 „ 

Penmanship ... ... ... ... ... i „ 

Practical work in the laboratory for the study of products. 

The great majority of the pupils of the Academy 
proceed through a more complete course than the 
above, namely, three years' course, the curriculum of 
which is : — 

FIRST YEAR. 



German ... 

French 

English or Italian 
Commercial Geography 
History ... 
Mathematics 
Commercial Arithmetic 
Commercial Knowledge and 

Office 

Physics 

Natural History 
Penmanship 



Work 



n Model 



3 hours 


per 


week 


3 


)) 




3 


)) 







)> 




2 


j> 




4 


>> 




3 


» 




■^ 

J 


II 




3 


)i 





Total 30 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 
SECOND YEAR. 



215 



German ... 

French 

English or Itahan 
Commercial Geography 
History ... 

Mathematics , 

Commercial Arithmetic 
Book-keeping ... 

Letter Writing , 

Commercial Law 
Chemistry 
Study of products 



2 hours per week. 



Total 30 



THIRD YEAR. 



German ... 

French 

English or Italian 
Commercial Geography 
Commercial History ... 
Commercial Arithmetic 
Political Arithmetic 
International Trade 

Model Office , 

Commercial Law 
Political Economy 
Study of products 



2 


h 


ours 


per week, 


3 






') 


3 






)> 


2 






jj 


2 






j> 


3 






>) 


2 






i> 


2 






)) 


5 






)» 


2 






)) 


3 






» 


2 






91 



Total 31 



ELECTIVE STUDIES. 



1. Practical work in chemical laboratory. 4 hours per week for 
2nd and 3rd year students. 

2. Practical work in laboratory for study of products. For 3rd 
year students. 



2l6 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

3. Study of customs laws and practical work in details of 
customs administrations. For 3rd year students, 2 hours per 
week. 

4. Stenography. In two one-year courses each of 2 hours per 
week. 

The yearly fees at this famous Academy amount to 
£16, but there are a large number of bursaries and 
maintenance scholarships by which the pupils of poor 
parents may enjoy the advantages of so excellent a 
course of training. Between thirty and forty of the 
pupils are foreigners. There is no special examination 
held at the end of each year, but the pupils are examined 
throughout the year, and a careful record of their progress 
and attainments kept. 

In the year 1896, Austria (without Hungary) possessed 
1 5 academies similar to the one described above, twenty 
secondary commercial schools, 6 private commercial 
Institutions partly secondary and partly elementary, 
62 elementary commercial schools, and 18 commercial 
schools connected with other institutions. There can 
be no doubt that Austria to-day possesses a very 
useful and complete system of commercial education. 
It has grown up and developed under the eyes of skilful, 
experienced, and sympathetic administrators, who have 
not been afraid of being called utilitarians for casting 
aside all matter that was not of a distinctly commercial 
and mercantile character. There is another Academy 
in the Austrian Empire that is worth studying, namely 
that of Prague. This was opened on April 19th, 1850, 
by the Commercial Council of the city, and was largely 
subscribed for by the citizens. At present there are 400 
students in attendance, and its curriculum (one of three 
years) is as follows : — 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 



217 



CURRICULUM. 

Theory of Commerce 
Ofifice Work and Con-espondence ... 
Mercantile Correspondence and Book- 
keeping ... 
Mercantile Arithmetic 

Political Arithmetic 

Usage and Casting of Produce 

Algebra 
Geography 

History ... 

Political Economy 

Commercial Legislation 

Natural History 

Physics 

Chemistry and Technology ... 

Knowledge of Products and Technology ... 

German 

French Language and Correspondence ... 

English Language and Correspondence ... 

Penmanship ... 

Total 



First 

Year. 

I 



Secotid 
Year. 
I . 



2 ... — 



30 



Third 
Year. 



OPTIONAL SUBJECTS. 

First. Second. Third. 

Italian Language and Correspondence ... 3 ... 3 ... 3 

Spanish Language and Correspondence ... — ... 2 ... 2 

Bohemian Language and Correspondence 2 ... 2 ... 2 

Practical Chemistry ... ... ... ... — ... — ... 4 

Stenogi-aphy ... ... ... ... ... 2 ... 2 ... i 

In Switzerland commercial education has taken much 
the same direction as it has in England, that is to 
say, the attempt has been made to graft it on to existing 
institutions, and with only partial success. The three 
best known of the Swiss Schools of Commerce are those 
of Berne, Basle, and Geneva. The Berne School is simply 
a higher department of the cantonal High School. 

14 



2l8 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

The boys of the age 10-15 years all pursue the same 
course, which, including as it docs French and English, 
gives them a good grounding in languages before they 
commence their special commercial training when 15 
years old. The subjects of instruction in the commercial 
department, which course extends over two years, are : — 
Physics, chemistry, knowledge of merchandise, drawing, 
calligraphy, gymnastics, science of trade, history, geo- 
graphy, counting house work and book-keeping, mathe- 
matics, commercial arithmetic, German and religion. 
Total number of hours of instruction each week is 
37 in first, and 36 in second year. The tuition fee is 
£2 8s. 4d. per annum. 

At Basle a similar system is adopted, except that the 
course extends over three years instead of two ; and is free. 

In the year 1887, the city of Geneva established a 
school of commerce quite distinct from the cantonal 
High School. One-fifth of the annual expense of this 
school is defrayed by fees, another fifth by the canton, 
the remainder by the city itself 

The subjects of instruction are French, German, 
English, Italian, Spanish (last 3 optional), calligraphy, 
drawing, book-keeping, mathematics, geography, his- 
tory, physics, chemistry, civil law, insurance and tariffs, 
and knowledge of merchandise. 

A system of visiting and reporting upon various 
mercantile establishments in the vicinity is in vogue, 
and 8 hours a week are spent in the model counting 
house. Total hours per week are 33 in first and second 
years, and 34 in third year. 

"As a model of a commercial ^continuation' school 
may be mentioned the school in St. Gall, where French is 
taught three hours a week throughout a four years' course. 
English, Italian, German, penmanship, commercial 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 219 

arithmetic, discount, civics and other branches. In 
summer the school is held from 6 to 8 a.m., in the 
winter from 7 to 9 a.m., and from 6 to 9 p.m. in both 
winter and summer. All utensils and stationery used in 
the school are furnished by the teachers, for which, in 
summer one franc, in winter two francs, are paid by 
the student." 

The commercial schools of France are of two kinds. 
There are seven higher institutions corresponding closely 
to the Austrian academies ; of these, two are in Paris, 
and one each in Marseilles, Rouen, Havre, Bordeaux, 
and Lyons. The lower class of commercial schools is 
made up of four intermediate and primary Schools, 
three of which are in Paris, and one in the provinces. 
We take no account here of the French higher primary 
schools, which give an excellent preliminary commercial 
education. 

Altogether there are in France eleven purely com- 
mercial schools. Three of these are under the direction 
of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, four are maintained 
from private sources. 

At Rouen the commercial school is connected with 
the city school of science and art ; the Bordeaux 
school is connected with the industrial school of that 
city ; whilst the school of commerce at Rheims is directly 
controlled by the Minister of Education. All these 
schools, with the exception of the last, which has lost 
all elasticity and become stereotyped, are leading a very 
precarious existence, and everything points to the 
management and support of these institutions being 
taken over by the State. The schools are all subsidised 
by the State to a certain extent — aid being given in the 
form of maintenance scholarships and bursaries. A very 
considerable proportion of the scholars are foreigners. 



220 



SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 



The age of admission is 15 years, and the complete 
course extends over 3 years. To those candidates who 
complete the stipulated course and pass the necessary 
examinations, a diploma is awarded, whilst gold and 
silver medals distinguish the clever students. 

Those graduates who obtain this diploma, are by the 
State exempted from one year's military service, whilst 
all the resources of the schools are utilised to secure for 
such good berths in the mercantile world. 

The curriculum of these French Schools of Commerce 
is 



Su/'j'ects. 



Hours per Week for each Course. 





Second 


\ Seeond 


First 


J 'ear : 


Year: 


Vear. 


First 


Second 




Half. 


Half. 



Third 
Year. 



French ... 
Mathematics 
Accounting 
Penmanship 
Commercial Correspondence 
Physical Geography 
Commercial Geography 
History ... 

Commercial History 
Physics ... 
Chemistry 
Mechanics 
Natural History 
Raw Materials 
Technology 
Commercial Law 
Fiscal Legislation 
Political Economy 
Drawing- 
Stenography 
German 
English ... 
Spanish... 
Italian ... 
Industrial Visits 



9 

3 
2 



4i 


2 


44 


3^ 


3 
--> 


3f 
29 


I 


I 


2 


— 


3 


3 

I 

4 


I 


^\ 


I 


I 
I 


3 


3 


4 


4 


3 


3 
I 


— 


I 


— 


— 



a 

4 
I 

2 
I 



- - 4 



3i 

I 

I 

3h 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 221 

This is how these French boys spend their day : — 



5.30 to 


6 a.m. ... 


... Rising and making toilet. 


6 to 


8 a.m. ... 


... Study in the class-rooms. 


8 to 


8.30 a.m. ... 


Recreation and breakfast, 


8.30 to 


II. a.m. ... 


Lessons. 


n to 


12.30 a.m. ... 


... Luncheon and recreation. 


12.30 to 


2.0 p.m. ... 


... Lessons. 


2 to 


2.30 p.m. ... 


Recreation. 


2.30 to 


5 p.m. ... 


... Lessons. 


5.0 to 


7.0 p.m. ... 


Dinner and recreation. 


7.0 to 


9.0 p.m. ... 


... Study in the class-rooms. 



With such a time table as this can there be much wonder 
that " Jacques " often appears to be a very dull boy ? 
Here, as in Germany, the effects of overpressure in the 
schools, both primary and secondary, are very visible, 
and one cannot but thoroughly sympathise with the 
German Emperor's appeal to his schoolmasters to lighten 
the task, so that the physical powers of the children may 
not be dwarfed and atrophied by this unnatural cultiva- 
tion of the mental faculties. At Cassel, where the 
Emperor attended school, there was a class, he once 
said, where, out of 20 boys, only he and another boy did 
not wear spectacles ! 

The most famous commercial school on the Conti- 
nent, not so much for the number of pupils (it has about 
1 50 at present), as for its age and the thoroughness of 
its course, is I'lnstitut de Commerce at Antwerp. It 
was founded in 1853 by a former Minister of State, and 
has educated over 4,000 students. Its cost of mainten- 
ance and management is undertaken by the City Council^ 
but the State also contributes towards it. The students 
live in private houses, and are not admitted until they 
have reached the age of 16^ years. The examination 
for admission comprises papers in French, English, 
German, book-keeping, geography, mathematics, chem- 



222 



SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 



istry, physics, history, commercial law, and political 
economy. The full course extends over two years. 

" The most important place in the course for the first 
year of the Institute is the practical work in the model 
counting house. Here the more theoretical branches 
have their focus. Here is utilised that which is taught 
in the scholastic branches. In the counting house the 
mercantile practice is imitated in its smallest details and 
widest bearings. Regular business transactions take 
place, and every student in turn is made to participate 
in all kinds of transactions and occupations. Business 
correspondence is first carried on in French, then in the 
other languages taught. Every month stock is taken 
and a balance sheet furnished. During the first year 
business is done only with European countries ; in the 
second year the business is extended to transmarine 

Curriculum. 





Hours per week. 


Subjects. 


First 
Year. 


Second 
Year. 


Counting House Practice 


12 


12 


Commercial Arithmetic 


3 


3 


Chemistry and Knowledge of Merchandise 
Political Economy 


2 
I 


2 
2 


History of Commerce ... 


2 


— 


Geography of Commerce 

Commercial and Maritime Law 




3 

I 


Elements of International Law 




— 


Tariff Legislation 




— 


Knowledge of Shipbuilding 

Dutch Language 

German 


2 

3 


2 
3 


English ... 

Spanish or Italian Language 


3 
3 


3 
3 


Total 


36 


34 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 223 

countries. All the bearings of trade are taught, so that 
the students gain a clear view of commerce and its 
ramifications all over the world." 

I here append the curriculum of this school, which 
has served as the prototype of so many Continental 
schools of commerce. 

The students are examined at the end of each year. 
The successful students at the completion of the second 
examination receive the diploma of " Licentiate in Com- 
merce," and are then offered travelling scholarships 
tenable for three years. They then select a foreign 
country, where they take up their abode, and study the 
system of commerce there in vogue. These students 
often open up for Belgian houses very valuable agencies 
in these countries, and so a quid pro quo is often quickly 
evident. Of late years, South America, Japan, China, 
and India have been favourite fields for these Belgian 
students, many of whom have obtained Belgian consul- 
ships in those countries. 

In Germany there are 55 commercial high schools 
with 5,681 pupils. Many of these German Schools are 
supported and managed entirely by Trade or Merchant 
Guilds, others again by the cities, and only a compara- 
tively small number by the State, but I do not intend 
here discussing in detail the complete system of German 
commercial education. The German Real and Ober- 
realschulen give their pupils a magnificent preliminary 
commercial education, particularly as regards modern 
languages. As Mr. Sadler puts it : — "Apart from its purely 
educational significance, it is clear that this form of 
curriculum has a very close bearing on commercial 
questions. The schools do not impart what would be 
called, in the narrow sense of the term, technical educa- 
tion. But they do fit their pupils to acquire very quickly 



224 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

on leaving school an accurate and intelligent knowledge 
of their business. These schools naturally lead up to 
commercial life. When a boy leaves the schools and 
enters a commercial house, there is no abrupt change in 
the subjects which he has to think about. He has a 
firm grasp of the grammar of the two foreign languages, 
and can, within natural limits, fluently write and converse 
in both of them. He is familiar with geography and 
with the conditions of life in different parts of the world. 
He is well grounded in advanced arithmetic. He has 
facility in composition. He has been trained in accurate 
habits of observation. His reasoning powers have been 
abundantly exercised on subjects similar to those which 
present themselves to him in his daily life. When he 
comes to London or Paris, he can fully understand what 
is said to him, and finds himself familiar with the con- 
ditions of life which prevail there. In other words, he 
has been prepared to take advantage of all opportunities 
of getting commercial experience. These schools may 
not be the best fitted to prepare lads for those occupa- 
tions which are concerned with making things, but they 
are excellently well designed to prepare them for occupa- 
tions which are concerned with .sy'/Zz'//^ things. Just as 
in industry a man needs constructive skill, so in com- 
merce he is all the more likely to succeed if he possesses 
practised powers of apt expression, and it is the latter 
which the linguistic studies of the Realschulen are 
specially fitted to train." 

In 1 83 1 was founded the public Commercial Institute 
of Leipsic — due to the City Merchants' Guild. It is 
now under the control and supported by the Chamber 
of Commerce, and during the year 1892-3 had 681 
pupils. The school is divided into three portions. 

I, The school for apprentices. This school is open 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 



225 



only to apprentices in the city of Leipsic, and to them 
the State concedes the highly valued privilege of attend- 
ing this school in lieu of the ordinary compulsory con- 
tinuation school. The curriculum of this apprentice 
school is : — 



Sl'bjects. 



German 

English 

French 

Commercial Arithmetic 

Commercial Science 

Office Work and Book-keeping 

Correspondence 

Geography 



Penmanship 



Total 



Hours per Week. 


Third 
Class. 


Second 
Class. 


First 
Class. 


2 


I 


I 


— 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


3 


2 

I 


2 
I 
I 


I 


I 


I 


2 


— 


— 


10 


10 


10 



The hours of instruction are from 7 to 9 in the morn- 
ing, or two to four in the afternoon, and the tuition fee 
is £4 per annum. 

2. The next section of the school is open to all boys over 
14 years of age who can pass the qualifying entrance 
examination in German, French, geography, history, 
and arithmetic. This is called the Higher Division, 
and is likewise a three years' course. 

Graduates of this course are exempted by the State 
from one year's military service. The tuition fee is from 
^12 to £16 per annum. 

3. There is finally the third section, or " professional 
course," open only to those who have already obtained 
their military exemption, but who wish to specialise in 



226 schools at home and abroad 

Curriculum. 





Hours per Week. 


Subjects. 


Third Second 


First 




Class. 


Class. 


Class. 


German 


4 


3 


3 


English 






5 


4 


4 


French ... 






5 


4 


4 


Mathematics 






3 


3 


4 


Commercial Arithmetic 






s 


3 


2 


Physics ... 






3 


2 


— 


Mechanical Technology 








— 


2 


Chemistry 






— 


2 


2 


Study of Products 






— 


— 


I 


Geography 






2 


2 


2 


History ... 






2 


2 


2 


Commercial Science ... 






— 


2 


— 


Commercial Law 






— 





I 


Office Work 






- — 


2 


— 


Correspondence 






— 


— 


2 


Book-keeping 






— 


— 


3 


Political Economy 






— 


— 


2 


Penmanship 






3 


2 


— 


Drawing 






2 


2 


— 


Athletics 






2 


2 


2 


Total 


36 


35 


36 


some particular branch ( 


:>{ commercij 


il 


educa 


tion. 


This 



course lasts one year only. 

Out of the 681 pupils in this school in 1892-3, 454 
were in the apprentice school taking a course of 10 hours 
a week for three years, 155 were in the three years' course 
of the Higher Division, whilst 72 were attending the 
professional course. 

There can be no doubt, I think, that this Commer- 
cial School of Leipsic meets the modern requirements 
of a great city in a very complete and satisfactory 
manner. Those lads who, leaving the public elementary 
schools at the age of 14, become apprentices, doubtless 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 22/ 

find in this apprentice school that special training in the 
theory and practice of their daily work, which was, of 
course, absent in their previous training, but which that 
training well fitted them to receive. Then the Higher 
Course of three years would admirably meet the require- 
ments of the sons of well-to-do tradesmen and merchants, 
and whilst qualifying them for partial exemption from 
military service would give them a thorough grasp of all 
the details, both practical and theoretical, of their future 
career. The necessities of the brilliant pupils — the future 
merchant princes — are fully provided for in the pro- 
fessional course. 

May it soon be that our large towns will be able to 
ofifer similar commercial advantages to their young men. 
Let us note, in conclusion, that all this good work has 
been done mainly by local effort, and, also, that however 
satisfactory our grammar school system may be, our 
educational panoply is very incomplete and vulnerable 
whilst so much is left undone. 



A GERMAN COMMERCIAL SCHOOL. 



Upon no branch of our national system of education are 
more diverse views held, or panaceas suggested than 
upon our system of technical education. 

It is invariably assumed that the present system of 
technical education in England is utterly inefficient and 
inadequate : yet this is not the opinion of observant 
foreigners. " L'Angleterre a, dans ces dernieres annees^ 
progresse a pas de geant .dans la diffusion de I'enseigne- 
ment professionnel, si bien qu' aucune des monographies 
ant^rieurement parues sur ce point ne peut nous donner 
une id6e exacte de la situation actuelle. Cela est si vrai 
que sur le Continent on se figure souvent que TAngleterre 
en est encore aujourd'hui au meme point qu' il y a dix 
ou vingt ans. Les Anglais eux-memes ne cherchent pas 
a faire ressortir ce qui les avantage dans la lutte com- 
merciale avec 1 etranger, et declarent qu'ils sont en retard 
pour I'enseignement professionnel. Nombre de mes 
interlocuteurs au cours de mon enquete m'ont tenu ce 
langage. On aurait grand tort de les croire." (Report 
by M. Pyfferoen to Belgian government). This opinion 
will be confirmed by a perusal of M. Vachon's report to 
the French government. " The English schools are of 
a higher grade than the Amsterdam school, for they 
will only receive students who have already finished 



A GERMAN COMMERCIAL SCHOOL 229 

their elementary education, who have ah'eady acquired 
the elementary principles of art, of science and of 
literature. These schools are very prosperous and render 
great service to local industries. Day by day they grow 
and are constantly serving as models to new schools of the 
same nature that are being created in different parts of 
the three kingdoms." Indeed, if one is to believe M. 
Demolins, much of this blatant pessimism is not even, 
sincere. " Des que les Anglais se sont aper^u des 
premiers symptomes d'envahissement du commerce alle- 
mand, leurs journaux ont pousse un cri d'avertissement, 
comme devaient le faire des sentinelles plus vigilantes 
que les notres: Made in Germany\ Ce cri preuve seule- 
ment a quel point lis sont en eveil, a quel point ils sont 
sensibles a tout ce qui peut menacer, meme de tres loin, 
leur redoutable superiorite industrielle et commerciale, 
Notre erreur profonde est d'avoir pris ce cri d'avertisse- 
ment pour un cri d'alarme jetant le sauve-qui-peut." 

However, be that as it may, there can be no doubt 
that the native pessimism of the Saxon has in this as in 
most branches of our system of education led him to 
take an unreasonable and despondent view of the future. 

Of course some of us must give up that belief in the 
divine monopoly of the Saxon. We have in the near past 
enjoyed what I venture to think was an unfair advantage 
over our rivals, and one that we could not hope to retain. 
The world-shrinking of the latter half of the nineteenth 
century gave England a peculiar but only temporary 
advantage over her commercial rivals. Matters are now 
righting themselves, an unstable is now giving place to 
a stable state of equilibrium. 

Much of the confusion in which the discussion of 
English commercial education is at present carried on 
arises from a slipshod and unscientific use of the term 



230 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

" commercial." For example, the provision of courses 
in Shorthand, bookkeeping or commercial arithmetic 
seems sufficient sometimes to justify the use of the name 
" commercial education." That this equipment of a lad 
with certain technical accomplishments should be 
dignified with the name commercial training, only 
serves to show how vague our ideas on this matter are* 
That the possibility of turning a primary school into a 
commercial school by adding certain technical accomplish- 
ments to the curriculum should occur to a level-headed 
community is proof not of educational enthusiasm only 
but also of misguided ingenuity. The curriculum in 
such a case is merely a more or less fortuitous concaten- 
ation of technical accomplishments that it is hoped may 
prove subsequently useful in office work. The absence 
of a solidarity of curriculum is the inevitable result of 
such patchwork. 

A bright promising occupation here or a facile accom- 
plishment there, appeals immediately, and in virtue of 
its monetary value to such pedagogues as fail to look 
for the underlying significance of the whole curriculum. 

Such a school will turn out an unlimited supply of 
clerks with various useful accomplishments but directors 
of commerce must not be looked for here. 

It cannot be too often asserted that commercial educa- 
tion is in no respect a matter for the primary school. 
All commercial training to be of any value postulates a 
sound liberal culture, which only a secondary training 
can fully develop. That a national system is not, how- 
ever, complete without schools where such technical 
ability can be given to the primary scholar it is unneces- 
sary to assert; the experience of Germany and France 
confirms us in this view. 

There is, too, the higher type of commercial school 



A GERMAN COMMERCIAL SCHOOL 23 1 

Such as those of Antwerp and Leipsic, where young men 
of 18 to 21 years of age are trained in the higher technique 
of commerce, and where are turned out those future 
officers of the commercial army whose role in life it will be 
to add more and more conquered territory to their country. 

But to my mind of far greater significance and sug- 
gestion to our people is the modern Commercial School 
of Germany, which is a recent creation but which bids 
fair to become a characteristic if not predominant feature 
of the modern German school system. 

These schools are pure Secondary Schools, just as much 
as Rugby or Clifton are. This must be emphasised — 
their promoters deliberately state that the curriculum 
is designed primarily for the development of character 
but it is conditioned by the vocational aim of the school. 

A headmaster of such a school told me that his hope, 
his ambition was to build up quite as fine men as those 
reared on a classical training. All that is good and 
ennobling in modern literature, in modern life, in modern 
ideas will be utilised for the building of character. No 
sordid aim shall colour the curriculum. We do not 
believe that the making of all good literature ended with 
the sack of Rome, nor do we so despise modern life as to 
deny to it all power of good training. It cannot be too 
often emphasized that from a pedagogic standpoint the 
past has no superiority over the present, but the present 
has an immense superiority over the past in its vocational 
value and its power of responsiveness to the personality 
of the pupil. 

These German commercial schools are of recent date 
and are supported generally either by the Municipality 
or the Chamber of Commerce. The State has done 
little for them as yet. Saxony led the way in the 
establishment of such schools, but they are now spread- 



232 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

ing throughout Germany. Recently a Commercial 
University has been inaugurated at Leipsic which it is 
intended shall be the final training-ground for the com- 
mercial secondary scholar. The Rhenish province is 
about to follow this example. 

At Aix-la-chapelle the commercial school has been 
built and managed by a local Insurance Society, which 
thus dispenses its superfluous funds. 

At Cologne the new commercial school cost the 
Municipality quarter of a million pounds sterling to 
build. It is a magnificent building fitted with every pos- 
sible convenience for teaching, and with accommodation 
for 600 pupils. 

The curriculum of these schools is intended to cover six 
years, but as the first three or four years 'course is practi- 
cally identical with that of the Realschule, it sometimes 
occurs that the commercial school is an outgrowth, so 
to speak of the Realschule course. Nevertheless, such a 
state of things is merely transitory. The tendency is 
for such to develop into full six year commercial school 
courses. The idea of a school possessing a variety of 
curricula is utterly repugnant to the German teacher. 

The curriculum of such a school is based upon linguistic 
training. It is held that for modern life two methods of 
training are possible, either a linguistic training or a 
training in practical science. The latter is admittedly 
much the more expensive of those two, and so it is not 
adopted by the thrifty German. To an Englishman the 
fact that a scientific training constantly appeals to the 
pupils' self-activity and cultivates self-help and resource- 
fulness, would make hesitation almost impossible. To a 
German this cultivation of the child's self-activity does 
not appeal so much. 

However, although the basis of the curriculum of the 



A GERMAN COMMERCIAL SCHOOL 



^33 



German commercial school is a linguistic training, yet 
the curriculum includes both chemistry and physics, 
taken up, however, only during the last two }'ears. The 
amount of practical work done by the boys is, I think, 
very little and this is taken up by a small proportion only 
of the pupils. Mathematics, commercial correspondence, 
Stenography and other characteristics of modern com- 
merce are given their due in the school time table. The 
languages taught are English and French ; and later on 
Spanish, Italian or Russian will be added as alternatives. 
The following analysis of a German commercial 
school time table will illustrate much better than any 
description the solidarity of curriculum of which I hav^e 
already said something. 

ANALYSIS OF TIME TABLE. 







VI 


V 


IV 


III 


II 


I 


Total 


Religion . 


• 3 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


13 


German 




• 5 


5 


5 


4 


3 


3 


25 


French 




. 6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


5 


35 


English 




. — 


— 


— 


5 


4 


4 


13 


History 




. — 


— 


2 


2 


2 


2 


8 


Geography 




. 2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


12 


Commercial Law 




. — 


— 


— 


— 


I 


I 


2 


Arithmetic 




• 5 


5 


4 


2 


2 


2 


20 


Algebra 




. — 


— 


— 


2 


I 


2 


5 


Geometry . 




— 


— 


2 


2 


2 


2 


8 


Bookkeeping (Opt'l) 




— 


— 


— 


— 


I 


2 


3 


Natural History 




2 


2 


2 


2 


— 


— 


8 


Physics and Technology 


— 


— 


— 


— 


2 


2 


4 


Chemistry and study of 
















products 


— 


— 


— 


— 


2 


2 


4 


Writing 




2 


2 


2 


— 


— 


— 


6 


Stenography 




— 


— 


— 


I 


I 


— 


2 


Freehand Drawing . 




— 


2 


2 


I 


I 


I 


7 


Gymnastics 




3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


i8 


Singing . 




2 


2 


I 


I 


I 


I 


8 



Total 



30 31 33 35 36 36 20I 

15 



234 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

This analysis brings out clearly the predominant 
culture-elements of the school curriculum. It differs 
from that of the Realschule, i.e., the modern secondary 
school, mainly in devoting less time to drawing and 
natural history, and in introducing certain special 
elements such as commercial law and stenography into 
the curriculum. 

The school fee is £^\ per annum, and the school hours 
vary from 30 to 36 hours per week. 

The boys are all day scholars, though of course many 
come from a distance and live with friends or in lodgings ; 
sometimes they even come from England. 

There is little of the corporate life of the English public 
school seen here, due entirely, I think, to the lack of school 
games and athletics. 

The classes generally consist of from fifteen to twenty 
scholars. The linguistic ability of the boys is really 
remarkable. Boys who have been learning English for 
only some twelve to fifteen months, converse with a ready 
fluency. I heard a recapitulatory lesson on the geography 
of Ireland. It was entirely in English. Bright and racy 
was the teaching. We touched on many things. Ethno- 
logical differences of Celt and Saxon, the feud of the 
Irish, Cromwell's doings, chief divisions of Ireland, 
Dublin — Phoenix Park, its notoriety, Killarney Lakes, 
and some account of the cause of Ireland's decadence, 
all were touched upon lightly, but clearly. In another 
room was a class of boys about seventeen years of age 
engaged in commercial correspondence in both English 
and French. These are the future correspondence clerks 
of Europe. Even in Italy, the German correspondence 
clerk is ousting the Italian, and a cry is heard similar to 
that so often heard in England. There can be no doubt 
that Germany is far ahead of England in this training in 



A GERMAN COMMERCIAL SCHOOL 235 

modern languages which she gives her sons ; indeed, there 
is scarcely a comparison possible between what is done 
at home and the magnificent linguistic training of the 
German school, built as it is upon a scientific basis 
throughout. 

But the fact is, it is not the method so much as the 
equipment of the teacher that is wrong. Germany has 
long discarded the foreigner as the teacher of foreign 
languages, though I remember once coming across an 
Englishman who taught French in a German Mittelschule. 

To-day every modern language teacher in Germany is 
a German. To acquire the foreign accent each of these 
teachers is sent at the cost of the Municipality to spend 
six weeks either in London or Paris. Five hundred 
marks per teacher is allocated for this purpose. Some- 
times curious results occur. In a Realgymnasium I was 
listening to the lesson in English. I was struck by two 
things, first the extensive vocabulary of the boys ; they 
were reading Tennyson's Enoch Arden. One of those 
beautiful Tennysonian similes occurred which cause even 
Englishmen to pause for thought ; the German lad did 
not hesitate but paraphrased it with a ready ease that 
commanded the admiration of the critic. The second 
point that struck me even more was the very pronounced 
Cockney accent of the teacher, and of course, to a lesser 
extent of his pupils. I delicately inquired the cause of 
this, and was told in all seriousness that a friend had 
advised him that the best English was spoken in London 
streets. He had cultivated assiduously the London bus- 
man and with these results ! 

To return to the curriculum — one notices that but 
scant attention is given to those technical accomplish- 
ments which absorb so large a portion of the curriculum 
of the English commercial school. These schools do 



236 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

not aim to turn out privates but ofificers for the German 
commercial army, and moreover cultured officers. 

Further one does not find in the German school 
curriculum such subjects as — in dra\^'in<;", the construction 
of geometrical figures and simple objects of daily use, 
geometrical drawing, sketching, india ink shading, and 
the elements of architectural drawing, which take up so 
much time in some commercial courses, and the utility of 
which for a commercial man may be doubted. 

These German lads leave school with a colloquial 
knowledge of English and French, they have read some 
of the best authors in both languages, they know the 
geography of those lands and their colonies intimately. 
They have been trained in English and French methods 
of living and of commerce. They have received, too, a 
sound and comprehensive training in mathematics and 
in science, and the technical details of the higher 
branches of commerce have been made familiar to them, 
and with all this an endeavour, and, I believe, a successful 
endeavour has been made to counteract the narrowing 
tendency of a specialized system of training. After all, 
I see no reason whatever why a judicious selection of 
modern tools cannot carve out the same fine statuary as 
those older tools of our classical schools, venerable though 
the latter be with antiquity and polished by use. 

Two matters will have to be faced, and if need be, fought. 
First the idea of the intrinsic superiority of a classical 
training in producing a cultured mind. I think that 
until we have killed outright this old dragon of Rome 
and Athens, we must be content to lag behind. The 
second matter is, that we must, in training our officers of 
commerce, get rid of that narrow, short-sighted view 
which confounds technical training with that which the 
true modern, the true commercial, school should provide. 



A GERMAN COMMERCIAL SCHOOL 237 

There is no more vital matter in the whole of our educa- 
tional system than this question of a modern school 
The modern side of our public schools does not meet 
this need, neither do the so-called commercial schools 
of some of our larger towns. What England needs to- 
day is a school where her future merchants may be 
trained to become cultured resourceful men, prepared 
for this twentieth century, saturated with modern ideas 
at home in Berlin as in New York or Melbourne. Such 
a school must be, I think, a true secondary school with a 
purely pedagogic basis to its curriculum. 

Let this basis of the curriculum be either scientific or 
linguistic, but let us have done once and for all with the 
idea that the curriculum of a commercial school needs 
no pedagogic basis. No kind of school needs it more. 
The cramping influence of a special training demands a 
curriculum broad and cultured. 

We want our future merchants to leave school not 
onl)' fitted with special weapons for the fight but 
with a wide tolerant outlook on life. Not German 
commerce alone should attract them, but German 
culture too. 

There is, however, no need to despair of England. It 
must be remembered that to an ambitious German com- 
mercial man a knowledge of English is indispens able 
for English is to-da)- the commercial language of the 
world ; whereas German is of no greater value to an 
Englishman than French. Then, too, of all modern 
languages English is probably the easiest to learn ; so 
that it is hardly fair to compare the German lad's pro- 
ficiency in English with the English lad's proficiency in 
German. 

Finally let it not be forgotten that the same cries we 
so often hear are also heard in Germany. To quote, 



238 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

" Un autre defaut propre aux Allemands et qui leur a 
fait souvent du tort au Transvaal est r ignorance dcs con- 
ditions du marclu'. lis importent des articles dont on 
n'a que faire la-bas et qui sont peu demandes. On peut 
relever aussi, comme des fautes, F insuffisance des einball- 
ages, Tignorance des modes, I'expedition, et I'oubli du 
caractt^re cosmopolite special du marche du Transvaal. 
Une autre cause d'insucces, pour le commerce allemand, 
est souvent le choix des agents auxquels oti ne laisse pas 
assez d' initiative, et qui sont peu au courant du commerce 
et des besoins de la place. . . . Ces diverses raisons ont 
entrave jusqu' a ici I'essor du commerce allemand." (M. 
Demolins quoting from a German official report.) 

We need cultivate no despondency as regards technical 
education in England. England's real need to-da}', her 
indespensable need, is a system (jf modern secondary 
schools. The child of the British workman has hitherto 
monopolised the attention of our reformers. So bu.sy have 
we been in giving our working population a system of 
primary and technical education that we seem to have 
forgotten that there are other classes of the community 
who also deserve and need the fostering care and pro- 
tection of the State. Why should the mercantile and 
professional classes alone be at the mercy of ever)^ 
charlatan in this matter of educating their children ? 
No class in the community is more anxious to do its 
dut)' by the child, and nowhere is the milieu more 
responsive, yet the commonwealth which has provided 
for the lower classes an organised and state-controlled 
system of education, hitherto has done nothing to meet 
the very pressing needs of these classes, despite the fact 
that the bulk of the national wealth is held by them. 
But more than that, the State itself suffers. It is highly 
important indeed that the privates in the national army 



A GERMAN COMMERCIAL SCHOOL 239 

should be trained ; it is \itally important that the officers 
should be highly trained. 

Whilst recognising in a judicial spirit our national 
needs, let us beware of cultivating an excessive pessimism. 
A cheerful optimism should govern our counsels. Eng- 
land is not as yet the land of a lost cause. Le bo)i Dieu 
when distributing national characteristics hid away in the 
casket of the Anglo-Celt a gem brighter than all other 
jewels, — a little gift apparently, but of infinitel}' greater 
value than the coal-fields and gold-fields that stud the 
British Empire ; a gift which foreigners quickly recognise 
and vainly endeavour to cultivate. 

It is the gift of individualit)', of self-help, of independ- 
ence of character. In Europe the individual depends on 
the State, in England the State depends on the indi\-idual. 
This characteristic explains the possession by Europe 
of highly organised and comprehensive systems of train- 
ing ; it explains, too, the absence of such systems in 
England and America. The Straits of Dover are much 
wider than the Atlantic Ocean. For England to imitate 
or even envy the German school system would be indeed 
foolish. A great people becomes greater not by modifi- 
cation but by development. We must work out our own 
salvation in our own wa\'. 

We shall become the imperial people of the future not 
b}' cultivating Teuton characteristics (admirable though 
they be, in Gerinmiy) but b)' a fuller and richer develop- 
ment of those powers of initiati\'e and resource peculiar 
to us as a people. 



THE FRENCH BACCALAUREAT 

The centre of gravity of the pedagogic world has, it 
has been asserted, passed from Germany to France. 
Without accepting altogether this assertion, it ma}' con- 
fidently be argued that some of the attention which 
English educators have devoted to German pedagogy 
might profitably be diverted to a fuller knowledge and 
a more complete study of the practical details and the 
ideals of the French system of training. That system is 
so different in ideals and workings from our own, that a 
study must at least widen our horizon, even though it 
may not prove a sure guide. So centralized and 
organised is the French system that it gave opportunity 
for an impromptu joke that has become historic. To 
those who advocate the complete State controlled system 
of education no system affords a fuller and more apt 
illustration than that of France. To others, to those 
who fear the ill-effects of such a control, no system 
perhaps accentuates them more clearly than this system 
of French education. As affording an apt object lesson 
it is proposed to make some observations on the French 
Baccalaur^at. 

The French Baccalaurdat is the leaving examination 
of the French secondary school. There are in France 



THE FRENCH BACCALAUREAT 24I 

two types of secondary schools — the pubHc and the 
private. 

The public secondary schools are the lyc^es supported, 
controlled, and officered by the State ; and the communal 
colleges, which are secondary schools of a somewhat 
lower grade, and receiving public local, as well as State 
support. 

These public schools are purely secular, and the 
teachers lay persons. 

In competition with these public schools we find the 
private secondary schools mainly in the hands of the 
Church and taught by clerics. These receive no public 
aid of any kind. 

In all these schools fees are charged, and in the case 
of the lycees the annual income is more than sufficient 
to meet the expenditure. Moreover, all these schools 
by scholarships, etc., endea\'our to assist the poorer 
parents in giving their children a secondar}' educa- 
tion. These French secondar}^ schools are all 
organised as boarding schools, though a number of day 
scholars also attend them, these generally dining at 
school but living at home. 

It is not proposed here to describe in detail the 
organisation and curriculum of these schools, it must 
suffice to say that the lycee is generally a boarding 
school of some 500 boys with about forty teachers. 

The discipline is confessedly rigid, the surveillance 
extremely personal and minute, and the atmosphere 
generally of a distinctly monastic though not neces- 
sarily religious character. 

The avowed aim of all these French secondary schools 
is to train boys for the first examination of the university 
of France — the Baccalaur^at. 

For the lycde this is the prescribed curriculum, for 



242 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the private school it is not prescribed but the exiirencies 
of competition compel it. 

The course of the lycee lasts generally from 8 to 
i6 or 1 8 years of age. Boys on entering are supposed 
to know something of the elements of reading and 
writing — nothing more. 

The first three years of school life are taken up in 
covering what is practical!)- the curriculum of the 
primary school. 

There is very little passing of pupils from the 
primary to the secondary school in France. The 
educational ladder is evidently not the ideal of French 
pedagogues. 

Of those bo}'s who enter the jycee onh- a certain 
proportion complete the course and proceed to the 
Baccalaurt^at. 

Let us briefly glance at the requirements for this 
examination, but before doing so it will be well to state 
that the present requirements are of no great antiquity, 
dating in fact from 1890; and, further, that recently a 
commission has sat and reported up^ni the whole subject 
of these requirements. 

It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that owing to 
the extremely centralized and bureaucratic character of 
French education the school is extremely sensitive to 
political changes. 

The curriculum of the school changes almost as 
rapidh' as the go\'ernment. The value of the school as a 
political engine is as well recognised in France as in 
Germany, though hitherto no French minister has 
so ruthlessly avowed that fact as the German Emperor. 

Further, the French government has long recognised 
the duty of the school in preparing for life. They have 
long held a healthy horror of the fatuous policy of 



THE FRENCH BACCALAUREAT 243 

turning- farmers and mechanics into quill-drivers. The}' 
have with characteristic enthusiasm and persistent en- 
dea\-our introduced this and that element into the school 
course, both primary and secondary, hoping thereby to 
vivify the curriculum and to bridge the gap between 
school and life. The change needed is, however, much 
more profound than that. It is a change of spirit, of at- 
mosphere, not homeopathic doses of pedagogic nostrums^ 
that is needed. Agriculture ma}' be taught and manual 
training ma}' be added, but until a revolution in the 
whole attitude of the school to life is effected these will 
prove futile. 

The curriculum of the school must be a real one, and 
one based upon experience. So long as formal studies 
maintain their supremacy over primar}' and secondary 
school so long will this detachment, this exclusiveness of 
the school from life be evident. 

Until it is recognised unreservedl}- that school is not 
a place for the cultivation of an}' form of mental 
gymnastics — that it is not a place for cultivatiiig this or 
that faculty, but that it is a place for the unfolding of 
character by means of a training in self consciousness 
this monastic character of the school will continue. 

Education is a growth, not a process. It is an un- 
folding of character — a spiritual growth from within, not 
an absorption from without. In truth, it is assimilation 
not accretion. It is a realising of the factors of 
existence — a fulfilling of the possibilities of life. 

To return : the lycee is divided into 10 classes. A 
boy as a rule graduates from one class to the next 
annual!}'. 

The curriculum is practically fixed by the Baccalaur^at. 
The course of the lycee thus fixed is the same for all 
the boys up to and including the last class but one {i.e. 



244 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the Rhetoric class) which class is reached at about the 
age of 1 6 of 17 years. Here comes the first examination 
for the Baccalaureat, which is the same for all candidates. 

The subjects of this examination are : — Latin, Greek, 
French, modern languages, mathematics, geography, 
history, morals, philosophy, drawing, gymnastics and 
military exercises. 

We might suppose from this syllabus that the ex- 
amination was an unusually stiff test for boys of 16 or 
17 )'ears of age, but it is said that the examination is by 
no means so dilTficult as its syllabus would lead us to 
infer. * 

Having successfully negotiated this first examination 
the student in his last year is allowed a choice of three 
branches — mathematics, philosophy, or science, and ac- 
cording as he chooses and qualifies so is his diploma in- 
scribed. This course which has been described is what 
may be termed the normal course of the lycde but 
side by side the lyc^e, has a concurrent curriculum — 
the so-called modern secondary course. 

This curriculum was designed to meet those modern 
needs to which the French pedagogic mind appears 
extremely susceptible. 

This modern course of the lycde is closely similar in 
outline to the course of the German Realschule. 

The lycee, like the English public school, attempts 
concurrent curricula, and the results are in some respects 
equally unfortunate. Any school that attempts to serve 
two masters only illustrates the Biblical truth. There 
is a lack of solidarity in the school curriculum which 
is accentuated in school life and is fatal to all high 
purposes. 

* Boutmy 



THE FRENCH BACCALAUREAT 245 

This modern secondary course of the lyc^e was 
designed, it was said, for " average minds," not for bright 
intellects ! 

Although modern in matter it is to be classical in 
spirit. An attempt was to be made to give the pupil 
the classical atmosphere by means of translations of the 
great classical writers ; and to increase the historic 
perspective of the pupils a course in State law, national 
economy and practical morals is added ! ! 

One cannot help feeling that were the French people 
as humorous as the)' are logical, this idea of a classical 
atmosphere to a modern training would have died an early 
death. 

The basis of this curriculum is evidently modern 
languages, and in both German and English the training 
is extensive and includes a study of the works of the 
chief writers of Germany and England. The complete 
programme for the modern course of the lycee is as 
follows : — 

German. Practical Morals. 

English. State Law and National 
French. Economy. 

Mathematics. History of Art and 
Geography and History. Civilisation. 

Natural History. Philosophy, 

Physics and Chemistry. Drawing. 

After being successful at the first examination of this 
special course, and which constitutes a special Bacca- 
laur^at, the pupil is allowed for his last examination a 
choice between mathematics, philosophy and science, and 
if successful his special diploma is so inscribed. 

All these various examinations for the Baccalaur^at 
are conducted by means of written exercises, and are 



246 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

held by the University officials — that is the officials 
of the various faculties of the University. The teachers 
themselves take no part whatever either in the conduct 
of the examinations or in the drawing up of the syllabus. 
The brevet scolaire, or school record of a pupil kept by 
his teachers ma}% if the pupil so desire, be handed in to 
the examiners, but serious objections to this system have 
been made by French educators.* 

Thus at the age of 17 or 18 years the successful 
scholar of the lycee finds himself on leaving the school 
in possession of a diploma which is the " op£?i sesame " to 
every liberal profession and all social prestige in France. 

Moreover, he is excused two years' military service. 

In Prussia, as is well known, a similar examination 
with closely similar privileges exists. 

This '\s\.\\Q '' Abitnrienten Examenr The subjects of 
this examination for the pupil of the gymnasium are 
Religion, German, Latin, Greek, French, history and 
geography, mathematics and physics, with as optional 
subjects English and Hebrew. 

The differences between this examinations and the 
French examination are : — 

1 . The Prussian examination is not a University examina- 

tion, though it admits to the Universities. 

2. It is conducted mainly by the teachers of the pupils 

themselves, not by outsiders, who, however able, are 
not able to get the best out of the pupil. 

3. The Prussian examination is an incident in the acade- 

mic career of the pupil, in France it is generally the 
culmination of his academic career. The tension of 
the examination is much less felt by the Prussian 
than by the French pupil. 

* See " Les etudes dassiquis et la danocratic^'' by A. Fouiller. 



THE P^RENCH BACCALAUREAT 247 

It is proposed now to discuss some of the social effects 
of this system of State examinations in France. 

However much one may feel disposed to criticise the 
value of such a uniform and indeed stereotyped system 
of State examinations, its power in securing a uniformity 
of efficiency in certain directions in the schools is un- 
questioned. Not only are all the public secondary 
schools compelled to fashion their currriculum to this 
one end, but by the force of competition the private 
schools are likewise compelled to bend their main 
energies in this direction. It is true that the private 
clerical schools are doing much in other directions in 
preparing young men for commerce and industry, yet 
the maintenance of public favour compels them to place 
the Baccalaureat at the head of their curriculum. 

It is important for us to realize the extent of the 
power of the Baccalaureat over the French secondary- 
school, public and private. 

It is impossible for any school of prestige or ambition 
to escape this power. This power is comprehensive 
and thorough. It is autocracy of the most effective 
kind. 

Individuality of school and pupil cannot be tolerated. 
They must all conform to the model. 

A very interesting experiment is just now being made 
to organise a French secondary school on entirely new 
lines and with new ideals. It will be interesting to 
observe how far this school will prove a success despite 
the fact that its pupils cannot presumably enter the 
liberal professions owing to the dethroning of the Bac- 
calaureat. 

The Baccalaureat has in effect secured that uniformity 
so dear to the French official mind. It has forbidden 
all deviation from the narrow and straight road that 



248 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

leads to social prestige — I will not say — success in 
France. 

The social consequences of the Baccalaureat are how- 
ever of vastly greater significance. 

Let us ponder for a moment over the fact that this 
democratic Republic of France has deliberately erected 
a social barrier within its society, that is in some respects 
unequalled by any barrier in English, American or even 
German society. The equality of French democracy is 
legal not social. In Germany under happy though 
occasional conditions, the fixing of a child's future may 
be delayed until he is 12 years of age. In France the 
future sphere of activity is fixed when, at 8 years of age, 
he enters the lycce. This barrier — the Baccalaureat — 
is practically impassable. 

Without it the pupil can never hope to enter any of 
the^dibcral professions or the higher strata of society ; 
with it he dare not enter industry, commerce or the 
lower strata of society. French society is divisible into 
two classes only — absolutely separate and detached, 
namely — the possessors and the non-possessors of this 
diploma. 

Without the Baccalaureat the youth who has dis- 
covered professional ability is helpless. He is probably 
too old to begin again at the bottom of the educational 
system and without the diploma no intellectual skill 
will secure for him the first steps in the professional 
ladder. 

He must plod on, knowing that the social community, 
the State, has placed an effective bar to the dedication 
of his gifts to the service of the State. The French boy's 
future sphere of activity is effectually mapped out when 
he is 8 years old b}- his parents, and from this decision, 
which is in effect a life sentence, there is no appeal. 



THE FRENCH 13ACCALAUREAT 24O 

Though he may develop the commercial ability of a 
Rothschild or the engineering genius of a de Lesseps, he 
must content himself within the sphere mapped out for 
him by his parents. 

Moreover, this system deprives the mercantile and 
commercial classes of France of that higher culture 
which is their privilege, no less than it is that o{ their 
professional brothers. The prosperity of France is surely 
in some respects, due to its mercantile and commercial 
classes. Then are they not entitled to that higher culture 
and those liberal studies which it is the privilege of a 
State University to dispense to all citizens? It is a loss 
to intellectual France when an increasing proportion of 
its citizens is cut off from the sources of the higher culture, 
especially when it is remembered that the prosperity of 
the whole social fabric is dependent upon the well- 
being of that class. Intellectual France has no right to 
arrogate these privileges to itself 

But the system curses the class it strives to bless. So 
many are the privileges, social and professional, offered 
b}' the Baccalaur6at that, }'ear by year, it draws a greater 
number of victims to its folds. " Chaque annee treize ;\ 
quatorze mille jeunes Fran^ais aspirent au diplome et 
presque tons avec la pensee qu'une fois ce diplome en 
poche, ils seraient ' dishonores s'ils faisaient de I'agri- 
culture, de I'industrie ou du com.merce.' La progression 
des candidats au baccalaureat moderne devient surtout 
effrayante ; en 1892, 1837; en 1893,2062; en 1894,2811; 
en 1895,3071; en 1897, 3433." (" Les etudes classiques," 
by A. Fouillee.) 

For they are victims. The number of the uneducated 
proletariat the " declasses " in France (and in Germany 
too) is assuming most alarming proportions. 

The professions are all fearfully overcrowded, and for 

16 



2SO SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

government employment of any kind the competition is 
extraordinary. 

This system of a State examination, with its syllabus 
drawn up by Government officials, is almost certain to 
be specially predisposed to the manufacture of officials. 
" Non seulement il y a des proletaires dans toutes les 
carrieres liberales, mais ils y sont legion ; medecins, 
avocats, magistrats, professeurs, ingenieurs, officiers, 
fonctionnaires, employes, artistes, ecrivains, ctudiants, 
politiciens, journalistes, &c. Si I'Universite cree i,ooo 
licencies par an, il n'y a que 200 ou 300 places vacantes 
pour eux dans les lyc^es : les autres ont pour but la 
dispense de deux ans de service militaire. L'ecole poly- 
technique a de 1000 k 1700 candidats pour 250 places; 
l'ecole centrale produit chaque annee de 800 a 900 
ingenieurs, dont les Fonts et Chaussees et les Compagnies 
de chemins de fer retiennent quelques-uns, le reste 
doivent se caser dans I'industrie, ou ils gagnent moins que 
certains ouvriers d'elite. Dans I'enseignement primaire 
sur 150,000 instituteurs ou institutrices ayant leur 
diplome, il y en a 100,000 dans une gene tres voisine de 
la misere ; il y a 15,000 candidats pour 150 places 
vacantes dans les ecoles de Paris ; les autres, par milliers, 
vont aux magasins, hommes ou femmes, et celles-ci helas ! 
parfois k la prostitution. A la prefecture de police il y 
a eu en 1896 pour 40 places 2,300 candidats ; a 1' Assist- 
ance publique on compte 250 candidats pour 8 emplois 
a donner. 

" A Paris, sur 2500 medecins, la moitie no gagnent pas 
de quoi se tirer d'affaire et se rejettent sur ' les besognes 
qui compromettent ; ' ce qui sera bien pis si I'enseigne- 
ment moderne ou peut-etre meme primaire se voit jamais 
ouvrir I'acccs des Facultes. C'est alors que les ' decho- 
tomies' les avortements, les complicites d'empoisonne- 



THE FRENCH BACCALAUREAT 25 1 

merit, le charlatanisme et le crime medical viendront 
grossir encore Ics statistiques dejk peu rassurantes. 

" Sur 3,000 avocats, il y en a tout au plus 20 qui 
reussissent. Les juges de paix, presque tous licencies ou 
docteurs en droit, vegetent miserablement, quand ils n'ont 
pas de fortune personelle ; et de meme I'officier pauvre qui 
n'a pas atteint le grade de commandant. M. Henry 
Berenger, dans la Conscience Nationale cite des chiffres 
tires des statistiques officielles ; le mal est indiscutable. 
Ils provient de la course au fonctionnarisme, de I'imprud- 
ence gen^rale avec laquelle on s'engage dans les carrieres 
liberales, impasses pour beaucoup, enfers pour tant 
d'autres." (" Les Etudes Classiques," by A. Fouillee). 

In Germany, as is well known, the same state of things 
exists. These young men with their University degrees 
are crowded out of the only spheres of life for which they 
have been ostensibly trained, and they are compelled by 
' caste ' to starve rather than turn to agriculture, com- 
merce, or industry for that livelihood which their pro- 
fession denies them. They are indeed " declasses." " To 
work I cannot, to beg I am ashamed." Hence, as the 
Kaiser would say. springs all the social sores, socialism 
anarchy, and the gutter journalism of to-day. 

Much of this state of things in France is attributed by 
French writers to the introduction of the so-called modern 
course of the lycee. This special Baccalaureat is, it is 
said, both easy and pedagogically unsound. It is neces- 
sary to revert to the more difiicult and purely classical 
course of old days. It is wrong to encourage these young 
men of only mediocre ability to persist in an unwise 
ambition. Let us teach them rather to be content with 
the humbler spheres of activity, such as commerce and 
industry afford. Much better would it be to organise a 
course for such young men specially fitting them for the 



252 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

business of life, but without the Baccalaureat and its 
privileges at the end. The modern course of the lycee 
should be cut out, and this work haiided over to 
the higher primary school and special technical 
schools. 

The Baccalaureat must be reserved for the intellectual 
elite of French youth, whose training should be of a 
severely classical and philosophical character. It must 
be recognised that for the intellectual aristocracy of any 
country the only training that will suffice is one based 
largely upon a study of the classical tongues and imbued 
with the philosophical spirit. This claim for the supre- 
macy of the classical tongues in the training of the 
secondary scholar has nowhere been urged with more 
force and eloquence than in France. Upon the decision 
of this proposition depends the curriculum of the 
secondary school. 

This matter of curriculum has excited equal attention 
in Germany and America. In England, too, some atten- 
tion has been given to it, and one finds a writer of the 
highest standing calmly assuming that it is impossible 
for a man to be really cultured who is — we will not say 
ignorant of Latin and Greek — but who has not received 
a training in the classical tongues. Without unduly 
emphasising an unfortunate aspect of such an assertion, 
let us look a little more fully than we have yet done into 
this matter of curriculum. We shall find as a conse- 
quence of our conception of the task of education, that 
the true basis of any system of training is not a study of 
old world tongues, but a scientific study of the material 
and spiritual world of to-day. 

Education is an organising of experience. By educa- 
tion the world is made intelligible. Man must, in order 
to be able to realise his milieu, to organise his experience, 



THE FRENCH BACCALAUREAT 253 

know and understand all the aspects of the world around 
him, physical and social. 

Without such knowledge there can be no right judg- 
ment. Life will prove a series of chances. A sound 
knowledge implies a right judgment. The more 
complete man's knowledge of his environment the 
sounder will be his judgment. It is not the power of 
willing merely that needs training, it is the ready 
responsiveness to all human and physical influences that 
must be trained, so that man's inherent power of 
judgment may be turned to right judgment. It is not 
lack of judgment but wrong judgment that is to be pro- 
vided against. No course of classical tongues will 
produce this power of right judgment ; it is not advocates, 
products of a system of forensic gymnastics that are 
needed, but judges who know and can appreciate every 
factor, material and spiritual, in the problem. It is 
knowledge, not skill, that is needed. No one can form a 
complete or sure judgment unless he be cognisant of 
and can appreciate every element in, the equation 
A mind skilled in Latin verse is no use per se in solving 
a quadratic or making a pump. 

Education consists in making the environment of the 
individual intelligible to him. Unless so made intelligible 
the world is full of ghostl}' noises, strange phantasies, 
and crude superstitions. The judgment is bound to be 
wrong, for the phenomena of life are outside the circle of 
realised experience ; the individual is unable to interpret 
them in terms of experience. 

If this is so it is evident that the two essentials of 
training are a knowledge of the physical and of the 
human elements in the environment. In other words 
the two indispensable bases of a liberal culture of any 
kind are. : — 



254 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

1. Scientific Studies. 

2. Humanistic Studies. 

These humanistic studies must evidently be of such a 
nature as to make intelligible to the individual the social 
society of which he is a unit. It is to place him en 
rapport with the present, not the past, that these 
humanistic studies are necessary. To make the present 
intelligible necessitates a study of the past. That is 
indeed true. What we have been, however, busily doing, 
was to study the past as an end, not as a means to an 
end. We must study the past only for the sake of the 
present. 

The mode of living, range of thought, nature of beliefs 
in the past have no intrinsic value to the pupil. Their 
relative value to him is in proportion to their relationship 
to the present. 

The old pedagogic idea of " mental gymnastics " must 
go together with that pernicious doctrine of " not what 
you teach, but how you teach is of value." 

This last accounts for nearly all the formalism, and 
much of the futility, of present systems of training. 

The purpose of education is not to develop mental 
gymnasts but thinkers. No ready facility in mental 
operations will compensate for a lack of knowledge. 
The first essential of success in life is to know one's self; 
to know in every detail that circle of which the ego is the 
centre. We go on teaching Latin paradigms and Greek 
irregulars under the idea that we are training certain so- 
called " faculties" of the mind. It may be so, but the 
whole is a very useless proceeding, and absolutely futile 
if regarded seriously as a training for life. How absurd is 
it to tr}' to fill our pupils' heads (fortunately Nature forbids 
that) with these quaint facts, whilst the world of to-da)' 
in which they move and have their being, remains 



THE FRENCH BACCALAUREAT 255 

absolutely unintelligible to them. They wander through 
life like disembodied ghosts, learning by painful ex- 
perience rather than by skilful training, the realities of 
existence. How does it help them to know something 
of the realities of life two thousand years ago? The 
times have changed, life has become infinitely more 
subtle and complex. The world we live in is a much 
bigger and fuller world than that old world. The pro- 
blems of life then are not those now. What interested the 
Athenians appeals only to human anachronisms to-day. 

It is these human anachronisms that our schools are 
turning out to-day, and it is time this manufacture of 
spurious Etruscan ware were stopped. Moreover this 
old world factory retains the exclusive atmosphere of 
monastic times — it and life lie far apart 

Our school should turn out intellects cognisant with 
the world of to-day, saturated with the modern spirit. 
Their pupils should be so trained that their outlook on 
life is modern not mediaeval. Only then may we look 
for the truly cultured citizen. There is no other way 
of training the ripe judgment. This way alone may the 
intellectual aristocracy of the future be trained. 

The humanistic studies of the school should be of 
such a character as to make the social life of to-day 
perfectly comprehensible. All in the past that elucidates 
the present, and what of it does not ? must be utilised 
for training. But the relative attitude of the school 
towards the past and the present will be changed. The 
tyranny of Rome and Athens over the school will dis- 
appear. The complete supremacy of the present over 
the past will be recognised. 

These old civilizations, with all their beauty of form 
and expression, will be studied as steps to the present, 
not as ideals to be carried into modern life. 



256 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

The scientific studies will give the pupil power to 
realise the material world of which he is the centre. 
Such a training will develop what may be termed the 
scientific attitude towards the phenomena of life. By 
this is meant a certain critical questioning of phenomena, 
a certain power of appreciating the significance of events. 
It is onl)' by developing this attitude that man may be- 
come the master of circumstances. 

Thus alone will man be able to utilise phenomena for 
the general purposes of the race. It is lack of this 
power of realising the significance of events, which lack 
is due to ignorance, that causes much of the apparent 
perversity of human effort. 

If our conception of the purpose of education is a just 
one then it becomes clear that to restrict the syllabus of 
the Baccalaureat to a training in classical tongues would 
only serve to perpetuate the manufacture of anachronisms. 
It is also clear that it is not a modification but a revolu- 
tion of curriculum that is needed. There must be a com- 
plete change in the spirit and ideals of the secondary 
school. The natural and physical sciences, instead of being 
additions, must be the basis of the curriculum. Of course 
a subsidiary concurrent curriculum based on the classical 
tongues, and designed for the manufacture of archaeolo- 
gists and historians might likewise be attempted, but the 
philosophical, the humanistic, course of the secondary 
school must have as its foundation stone a training in 
the phenomena of nature and life. Thus alone can we 
hope to train really cultured citizens, full souled 
intellects. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME 
AND ABROAD. 

" You are fond of children and learned in the new system of 
teaching them,'' said Mr. Jackson. 

" Very fond of them," replied Phcebe, " but I know nothing of 
teaching beyond the pleasure I have in it, and the pleasure it gives 
me when they learn. Perhaps your overhearing my little scholars 
sing some of their lessons has led you so far astray as to think me 
a good teacher ? Ah, I thought so I No, I have only read and 
been told about that system. It seems so pretty and pleasant, and 
to treat them so like the merry robins they are that I took up with 
it in my little way." 

" Shall we make a man of him ?" repeated the doctor. 

" I had rather be a child," replied Paul. 

Charles Dickens. 

When the history of education in England comes to 
be written, no name will fill so worthy a place as Charles 
Dickens. It has^een left for a distinguished Canadian 
educator to do justice to the educational work of Dickens. 

Endowed with an intense sympathy for children and 
weaklings, Dickens went forth as a knight errant with no 
weapon but his pen to right the wrong. He exposed 
with the relentlessness of a surgeon the social sores, the 
parasitical pests, and the solemn frauds that fasten and 
fatten on our common life. 

He was the children's advocate and right nobly did he 
acquit himself. He saw even more clearly perhaps than 



258 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Froebel himself the child's right to childhood. He pro- 
claimed it on the housetops. He poured his finest con- 
tempt, his keenest sarcasm on the Blimbers and Creakles 
of life. He saw that education, true education, is a training 
in doing, in will power, in character. To bring up a child 
like a hothouse plant, forced, and secluded from life, was 
to him not a mistake but a stupid crime. God sent chil- 
dren into the world to live--not to exist. It is as wicked 
to rob these little ones of their right to live as it is to hide 
the sunlight from them when living. Those fearful relics 
of mediaeval thought, such as the doctrine of original sin 
and child depravity, hung like a great cloud over the 
childhood of Dickens' day, but as an old world prophet 
he lifted his hands and the cloud disappeared from the 
English school, let us hope never to return. It was the 
right of children to the sunlight too that Dickens urged 
with all the eloquence of his soul, until at last it dawned 
upon our parents that children were not devils to be 
whipped into saints. How eloquently does he plead for 
the natural freedom of childhood ! 

" Even the sun-burned faces of gipsy children, half 
naked though they be, suggest a drop of comfort. It is 
a pleasant thing to see that the sun has been there ; to 
know that the air and light are on them every day ; to 
feel that they are children, and lead children's lives ; that 
if their pillows be damp it is with the dews of heaven, 
and not with tears ; that the limbs of their girls are free, 
and that they are not crippled by distortions, imposing 
an unnatural and horrible penance upon their sex ; that 
their lives are spent from day to day, at least among the 
waving trees, and not in the midst of dreadful engines, 
which make young children old before they know what 
childhood is, and give them the exhaustion and infirmity 
of age, without, like age, the privilege to die. God send 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 259 

that old nursery tales were true, and that gipsies stole 
such children by the score ! " — {Nicholas Nickleby.'] 

Yes, Dickens was England's greatest educator, though 
he never wrote pedagogic essays or sat on a Royal 
Commission. He did more than that, he pulled open 
the shutters and let the beautiful sunlight into the school- 
room to play mid the golden tresses of the children. 
Froebel prompted him,* it is true, but the real power 
behind Dickens' advocacy of childhood was his own 
strong human heart. 

But my purpose now is not to speak to you of 
the work of Dickens, nor to plead again, fifty years 
later, for this free childhood which Dickens claimed for 
children. 

I do not intend putting in a claim for the Kindergarten : 
that would indeed be too belated. 

The question of the advantages or disadvantages of 
the Kindergarten system is no longer a question of 
practical pedagogy, and merits no more discussion than 
the sphericity of the earth or the law of gravity. The 
person who questions the efficacy of the Kindergarten 
system of training children confesses himself an 
anachronism, and merits as much consideration as a 
" legitimist." 

The world revolves too rapidly and life is consequently 
too short for academic discussions such as those suggested 
in " Alice in Wonderland." 

Indeed the only serious objection urged against the 
Kindergarten now-a-days is generally that of expense, 
and there can be no doubt that under the present 
financial conditions of our schools the true Kindergarten 
is largely an ideal ; nevertheless much can be and is being 
done by our best teachers to make their schools all that 
* T. was in 1855 that Dickens wrote his essay on the Kindergarten. 



26o SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Froebel and Dickens considered they should be. But 
even on this point economy, as is so often the case, prob- 
ably spells extravagance in the end. 

" Nothing is too expensive that really improves educa- 
tion, for such improvement cuts off all the waste product 
of society — the defective and degenerate, the cripple, 
thief, and fool, and saves millions upon millions now 
spent in maintaining or restraining these injurious classes. 
Not only that, but it as steadily develops the working 
value of humanity, turning out more and more vigorous 
and original thinkers and doers to multiply our wealth 
and pleasure. Grant the usefulness of improved methods 
in education and they can never be expensive. Even to- 
day the school children become a far better class of 
citizens than the street arabs who do not go to school ; 
and such school advantages as we have lower our expense 
in handling crime and disease. When we provide for 
every child the very best education — real education of 
body, brain, and soul — with the trained hand and eye to 
do what the trained will and judgment command, it is 
difficult to see where the ' criminal class ' is to come 
from." — [C. P. Gihiian " Concerning Children."^ 

The spirit upon which the teacher's work to-day is 
based is that of real love and respect for the individuality 
of the child. Once that spirit has entered the school then 
all things are possible. 

So this morning, after a short discussion of the methods 
of the Kindergarten,! propose that we, profitably perhaps, 
employ ourselves in seeing what our neighbours are doing 
in the development of the Kindergarten, and for this 
purpose we will avail ourselves of a \ery valuable paper 
written b)' an American educator. Dr. Hailmann 
which contains descriptions of the aims and methods of 
these schools, written by the teachers themselves, and 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 261 

tlien perhaps we may form some idea as to how we com- 
pare with our neighbours in this work. 

It is five years ago since the examination of infant 
schools was abolished ; but such a system dies hard, 
and even to-day semetimes the success of the school is 
estimated by the proficiency of the scholars in the three 
R's more than by the intelligence, the tone, and the 
pleasure the school engenders in its little ones. Some 
17 years ago, Jules Ferry, speaking of the French 
infant schools, said : 

" The success of the directress of an ecole maternelle 
is, therefore, measured, not by the mass of imparted 
knowledge, not by the number and length of lessons, but 
rather by the sum of good influences with which the 
child is surrounded, by the pleasure it feels in the school, 
by the habits of order, neatness, politeness, attention, 
intellectual activity it acquires there, as it were, in play. 
Consequentl}', the directress should aim to promote to 
the primary school, not so many children already well 
advanced in instruction, but rather children well prepared 
to receive instruction. All exercises of the ecole 
maternelle should accord with this principle ; they 
should favour the development of the various faculties 
of the child without fatigue, without compulsion or 
excessive application ; they should make him love the 
school and give him at an early period a taste for work 
by never requiring of him a kind of work incom- 
patible with the weakness and instability of tender 
years. The end in view, while considering the diversity 
of temperaments, the precocity of some and the slowness 
of others, is not to bring all to a certain grade of skill in 
reading, writing, and arithmetic, but it is that they 
know well what they may know, that they love their 
tasks, their games, their lessons of any kind ; it is 



262 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

particularly that they ma}' not have a dislike for those 
first school exercises which would so readily become 
distasteful if the patience, the versatilit)-, the ingenuous 
affection of the teacher did not continue to vary them, 
to enliven them, to get from them or attach to them 
some pleasure for the child. Good health, the senses 
already trained by a series of little games and experi- 
ments calculated to educate them ; childlike, but distinct 
and clear ideas on the first rudiments of what will become 
primary instruction ; a start in the formation of habits 
and tastes on which the school may base its regular 
teaching ; a taste for gymnastics, singing, drawing, 
pictures, stories, eagerness to listen, to look, to observe, 
to imitate, to ask and answer questions ; a certain 
power of attention resulting from docility, confidence, 
and good disposition ; finally, an awakened intelligence 
and a soul open to all good moral impressions ; these 
are effects and results to be asked of the ecole 
maternelle, and if the child comes from it to the 
primary school with such a preparation, it matters 
little whether it has acquired a few pages more or less 
of the syllabus." 

It is sometimes urged against the Kindergarten 
system of teaching a child through play, that anything 
lightly gained is lightly lost, and that children taught 
on this plan never really know anything. As Madame 
de Stael says, " The education that takes place through 
amusement dissipates thought ; labour of some sort is 
one of the great aids of Nature. The mind of the child 
ought to accustom itself to the labour of study, just as 
our soul to suffering. You will teach a multitude of 
things to your child by means of pictures and cards, but 
you will not teach him how to learn." 

Ah, Madame, we of to-day see that though effort and 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 263 

difficulty and trials may be good to man to open up the 
deeper grit in his character, yet that they are not in- 
dispensable even to man's salvation ; infinitely less so 
are they to the child's ! 

Think you it is the kindly or the wise part to place 
difficulties in the paths of these little ones, to cloud over 
the bright sunshine (all too transient) of their childhood, 
and to make Education, which is to be their saviour, 
appear to them as an ugly, spiteful sprite, ever ready 
to cause them to stumble and weep? Such concep- 
tions of child training are the relics of that asceticism 
which ostracised the Maypole and expurgated Shakes- 
peare. 

It is, I think, our duty as teachers to study our pupils 
to tr)' to see the world from tlieir point of view — not 
ours. Children form the majority of our population and 
therefore should have the rights of a majority. We 
adults have no right whatever to force our ideas of 
religion and morals down the throats of our children, 
and to " discipline " them as we so often try to do. " All 
control is wrong that attempts to fetter the child with 
a man's thoughts, and a man's motives, or a man's 
creed. Herein lies the greatest danger. It is a fatal 
blunder to rob a child of its childhood. We interfere 
too often with a child's spontaneity by checking its 
plays or by rousing it from its reveries. Teachers 
should remember that what would be folly and 
indolence in them may be absolutely essential for the 
highest development of the child physically, intellectually 
and morally. A child may be injured morally by stop- 
ping its play with the sand on the seashore, or its ramble 
among the flowers, or its apparently idle dream as it 
lies looking at the clouds, to force it to listen to religious 
exercises it does not understand. The music of the 



264 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

birds and bees is more like!}' to arouse its spiritual 
nature than the music of an organ. He is the best 
teacher who most clearly remembers the feelings and 
thoughts of his own boyhood. We cannot force 
maturity on a child in feeling, motive, thought or action 
without making it a hypocrite and we can make nothing 
worse out of it. The darkest hour of a child's life is the 
hour when it draws a curtain over the windows of its 
heart to shut out mother or teacher, and deceit usurps 
the place of honest frankness."— [/^j- L. Hughes?^ 

I wish now to discuss very briefly the ideas under- 
lying the various gifts of Froebel, of which there are, as 
you know, twenty : * These twenty gifts have been 
classified in five groups, of which the first group is made 
up of the first six gifts, and in which definite, clear 
conceptions of Form and Number are taught the child. 
Thus the first gift teaches : — colour, direction, use of 
terms for certain properties or qualities, such as Jiard, 
soft; and organised use of the limbs. The second 
gift teaches :— form, contrast, similarity, and dissimi- 
larity (Sphere, Cube and Cylinder) : and right use of 
language. 

The third (cubes) and fourth (bricks) gift teach 
number and the beginning of .symmetry and design. 
The fifth and sixth gifts extend the child's ideas of Form 
and Number. The second group is made up of the 
gifts 7, 8, 9, and 10, and deals with surfaces, and pro- 
ceeds from block-laying and tablet-la}'ing up to drawing 
with a pencil on square ruled-paper. Gifts eight and 
nine deal with stick and ring laying, which form a 
valuable link between the square and triangular tablets 
and the art of drawing. One notices how the child is 
interested first of all in solids, then in surfaces and 
*See Report of Commissioner U.S.A. 1896-7, Vol. 1, p. S99. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 265 

angles, and finally his muscles are trained by drawing 
over and through squares on paper. 

Thus the Kindergarten is the proper foundation for 
manual training, and it is in these early days that the 
skilled artisan of later days is formed. " Two weeks' 
practice of holding objects in his right hand will make 
the infant in his first year right-handed for life." 

The next group is formed of the eleventh and twelfth 
gifts, in which the pupil's muscular training is continued, 
and his knowledge of surfaces extended by outlining 
objects by means of embroidery — first by perforating, 
and then by using the needle. The latter exercise, I 
need hardly point out, is the basis upon which all the 
needlework training of later years is based. The next 
group comprises gifts 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, and 
covers : — 

13. Paper-cutting (strips). 

14. Mats. 

15. Laths. 

16. Jointed lath. 

17. Paper-twining. 

18. Paper-folding. 

This group forms the natural basis of the arts of plait- 
ing and weaving. 

The last group is made up of gifts 19 and 20. In gift 
19, corks and pieces of wire or sticks being used, solid 
forms are built up. In the 20th gift, these solids are 
modelled in clay or wax. The Kindergarten is a place 
for training the mind through the eyes and hands. 

Of the muscular training developed in the Kindergarten 
it is difficult to speak too highly. Were our children's 
muscles properly developed and trained, we should see 
less of those slouching loafers on the corners, whose 
fingers are all thumbs, and whose existence is one of 

17 



266 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the heaviest indictments of the modern system of 
training. 

But I have taken up already too much of my time in 
discussing general tendencies. Let us now cross the 
Straits of Dover, and observe what our rivals are doing 
in the development of the Kindergarten. We shall find 
that the Kindergartens are largely voluntary in Northern 
Europe and Italy, and there we shall find that they have 
developed most nearly in accordance with Froebel's 
original ideas. 

A very general plan of Kindergarten is one in which 
there is a duplicate set of rooms, one set being the 
ordinary class-rooms, and the other set being play-rooms, 
where the children play various games, sing, march, and 
drill, and out in the playground we have the garden plots 
of the children. In the Continental Kindergarten schools 
the dual Kindergarten desks have become obsolete, and 
are supplanted by tables, around which the children sit, 
and by means of which it is considered that the spirit of 
co-operation and social dependence is increased. 

In Germany the most interesting Kindergarten is the 
Pestalozzi-Froebel House at Berlin, which was begun in 
1870 by Madam Schrader, an old pupil of Froebel's, as a 
private school, but which in 1880 developed into a public 
school, controlled by an association of wealthy Germans 
interested in the development of Froebel's work. We 
are told that in this school a special attempt has been 
made to preserve and extend the home influence and 
training ; for example, the children are taught the usual 
home occupations, the little girls make their beds, and 
clean the windows, and grow their own flowers, whilst 
the boys make rugs, picture frames and playthings. A 
sketch of a day in this institution is given by Bertha 
Meyer, author of "From the Cradle to the School.'' 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 267 

Thus, speaking of the babies' class, she says : " We 
notice that the playthings of the nursery are not banished 
from their room. We see here dolls, dolls' beds and 
carriages, cooking utensils, a Noah's Ark, hollow forms, 
for the sand games, a railroad, and many other things. 
Frequently they may use these things as they please, 
yet at other times much is prudently withheld. One of 
their regular occupations is stringing of beads. During 
this time they are told a story, or sing a song, or give 
vent to their own fancies in free conversation. Here a 
bead strung on a thread plays varied parts. Now it is a 
bell swinging to and fro, now a locomotive puffing noisily 
away. The various colours of the beads enable the 
children to discover many instructive distinctions among 
them. Thus they vary song and work until the time is 
past. Another favourite occupation is the sand game. 
The children fashion, with the help of their hollow sand 
forms, or suitable kitchen utensils, a variety of things 
from moist sand ; cooking ranges, all sorts of cakes and 
pastry ; or they make little gardens which they adorn 
with real flowers or pine sprays, or with paper trees and 
birds which the upper divisions have made for them. 
Another occupation is the drawing out of threads from 
coarse woollen rags. These threads they tie into dolls, 
little birds, or mice, or they make brooms with them, or 
lay them loosely into a small basket or clay saucer to 
represent the nest of birds or mice, or they manufacture 
them into small beds for dolls, cut from paper or wood. 
However, after the very first occupation, the signal for 
luncheon is given. The children march again to the 
large playroom. In the meantime the two little helpers 
place at each seat a small round piece of board upon the 
table, and on each of these boards a small slice of bread 
and butter is laid and cut into small pieces. When all 



268 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

preparations are made, the children march back to 
luncheon amid suitable calisthenic exercises. After 
breakfast the children again repair to the playroom, while 
the little helpers clear the tables and prepare for the new 
occupation. This lasts until 11.45, when the children 
are dismissed to their homes, with the exception of those 
whose mothers work away from their homes, who receive 
their dinner at the Kindergarten. These remain under 
supervision during the entire noon recess, and, should 
they feel tired, they take a nap on mattresses provided 
for this purpose. The afternoon session lasts from 2 to 
4 o'clock, and is spent chiefly in free play or movement 
games." " In the upper classes, and, indeed, throughout 
this school, much stress is laid on intelligent intercourse 
w^ith nature, and on the activities of daily domestic life. 
Subjects for instruction are chosen chiefly from nature, 
and in accordance with the seasons. Thus, in March, 
the lessons and plays dealt with peas, lentils, and beans ; 
in April with violets and Spring beauties ; in May with 
some prominent May-blossoms, and other trees ; in June 
with grass and cereals ; in July with chickens ; in Sep- 
tember with water ; in October with the apple tree and 
ivy ; in November with the mouse and baked apples ; 
in December with the pine tree, and so on." 

" In the highest class the work in the Froebel occupa- 
tions is gradually combined with the rudiments of school 
work. Instruction begins at 8.30. In writing, they 
learn to make simple letters ; in arithmetic, they analyse 
numbers with the help of sticks and lines, from one to 
five ; in German, they learn to form simple sentences and 
to analyse them into words, and these into syllables ; in 
drawing, they draw from stencils the outlines of right 
angles, squares, etc., and fill these with lines — they learn 
to recognise angles, and to draw them ; in home geo- 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 269 

graphy, they learn to know the cardinal points of the 
compass, and the directions in which to find familiar 
buildings and localities. They observe the position of 
the sun, and other similar facts. They measure the 
schoolroom, and distances of objects from each other, 
and make a ground plan of the house and its contents. 
They become familiar with native plants and animals." 
Let me in passing quote from a report written over 30 
years ago by the German Froebel x'\ssociation : " Yes, 
you say, but how about reading and writing ? Writing ? 
The child must learn to walk before it can skip and run ; 
similarly it must first learn to draw, and then to write, 
for writing is only a particular kind of drawing. And 
reading ? Why, indeed, should a child learn by reading 
how a house, a right angle, a horse, a plough looks, what 
the farmer and miller do. . . . Why not, rather, hear 
about these things, and, so far as possible, see and do 
and represent these things? Will not these things be 
to him in these ways clearer, more living, and more im- 
pressive than reading about them could make them ? " 
Just one more quotation before we leave this point, and 
this time from i\ppendix 8 of the Instructions to Inspec- 
tors of the English Education Department : " It will be 
found that the elementary subjects, when taught on right 
methods, can be treated with greater variety. Reading 
becomes a Kindergarten lesson through pictures and 
word-building. Writing becomes a variety of Kinder- 
garten dra\Ving. Elementary exercises in number are 
associated with many of the Kindergarten occupations. 
It is the experience of many good teachers that by the 
adoption of such methods, it is found to be unnecessary 
before the sixth year is passed to employ books for 
reading, except occasionally for a change of occupation, 
or perform any exercise in writing, except the elements 



270 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

of letters, or to do any formal arithmetic work on 
slates." 

Germany has no complete system of infant training 
such as we possess. Indeed, not a few Germans express 
much regret at this, stating that it is a loss that these 
impressionable years should be allowed to pass without 
any other training being possible than what the home 
affords.* Very often this home training is about as bad 
as possible, the little ones often seeing and hearing mucli 
that must have a permanently pernicious influence on 
their characters. Until quite recently Germany was very 
largely an agricultural and rural community, but the 
growth of modern industry, of capitalism, has resulted in 
an enormous increase of the urban population and of 
material wealth. Some German cities have grown faster 
than even American cities. The result is that 
the bad effects of the factory system are only now 
beginning to be seriously felt in Germany. Hitherto, 
the German housewife has been able to train her children 
upon the excellent system that she herself was trained 
in, but the factory must interfere very seriously, indeed, 
with this, and the need of a substitute for the home will 
then be sadly needed. Many societies are at present 
working to fill up this lacuna. There are in all the 
large German towns private Kindergartens, where the 
children of different classes may find children of their 
own class gathered together for training on the principles 
of Froebel. Those attended by the poorer classes supply 
a mid-day meal for one penny a day. One of such 

* " Jean Paul says of the child that it learns more m the 
first three years of its life than an adult in his three years at the 
University ; that a circumnavigator of the globe is indebted for 
more notions to his nurse than to all the peoples of the world with 
whom he has come in contact." — Lange. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 2/1 

private Kindergartens had, when visited by me, about 
40 children present ; but in the winter they have twice 
as many. The teachers were most industrious and skilful ; 
indeed, so zealously do they work that my wonder is that 
they are able to stand so great a strain. Of course, the 
classes are small — ten children to one teacher. The 
children all sit around a table, and talking (orderly talk- 
ing, of course) is encouraged as much as possible. The 
walls are papered, and the rooms generally have a very 
homely appearance. The idea is to make the place as 
little like school and as much like home as possible. 
The lessons are quite informal. No time-table appears 
to be drawn up, only a scheme of instruction, and this is 
for the purpose of securing unity in the curriculum. The 
Kindergarten is open from 9 to 12 in the morning, and 
3 to 6 in the afternoon, but much of this time is spent in 
the open air under a shed in the playground, or playing" 
in the playground. The sand-pit in the playground is 
evidently a favourite spot. Then they have their garden 
plots, where plants are grown and pets kept. No formal 
lessons in the three R's are given ; five is the limit in 
number ; no writing on slates nor reading from books is 
taken, but language exercise is very largely cultivated. 
All the lessons centre round the nature lesson. 

It would take me too long to tell you of the interesting 
lessons I heard, or the games I saw played, but I was 
much delighted with the school. The children were so 
thoroughly happy, so unconscious of their training, so 
natural, that I felt convinced that this, indeed, was much 
nearer Froebel's ideal than anything I had seen before. 
There was no attempt to check the natural vivacity, 
restlessness, and talkativeness of the children. The 
teachers recognise fully the physiological truth that 
children cannot, and were never intended by Mother 



2/2 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Nature to sit still. There was no " Be quiet," nor 

Sh sh " heard, but rather the children were encouraged 

to talk — in an orderly manner. There can be no doubt 
that such a training-ground as this must produce that 
love of learning which is the greatest gift the people's 
schools can give a child. 

In Switzerland, the home of so many great educational 
reformers, the spirit of Froebel has not penetrated very 
deeply into infant education. The infant schools of 
Switzerland are looked upon, as they are in some other 
countries, as merely preparatory courses for the primary 
schools. Yet they are rapidly improving and extending, 
and, being amenable to that healthy public opinion on 
national education that characterises the modern Swiss, 
they are bound to become fine examples of what well- 
staffed and well - supplied Kindergartens should be. 
These Swiss schools are composed of a lower division 
for children between the ages of three and six, and a 
higher division for children between six and seven. In 
both divisions the instruction consists chiefly of object 
lessons, manual occupations, games, and songs. These 
schools are gratuitous, but not obligatory. The infant 
schools are open daily, except on Sundays, Thursdays, 
and legal holidays, from 8 to 1 1 a.m., and from i to 4 p.m. 
When the number of children exceeds 40 an assistant 
must be provided. The duty of the teachers is to watch 
over the intellectual, moral, and physical education of 
the children ; to inculcate good principles ; establish 
good habits, proper manners and correct language. 

The Belgian Kindergartens were supported mainly by 
the Municipalities, but since 1870 they have been largely 
subsidised by the State. It is not proposed to discuss 
in detail the organisation and administration of these 
schools ; it must suffice for my purpose to sketch very 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 2/3 

briefly how a day is spent in a Kindergarten in Brussels, 
and in doing so I shall paraphrase a description given by 
one of the teachers. (Mdle. H. Van Molle Andre, in the 
Commissioners' Report, 1890-1, vol. II., p. 690.) 

If you enter such a school between eight and nine in 
the morning, you will notice the children dropping in 
casually, accompanied often by their elder brothers and 
sisters, or by their parents. Punctuality is not a virtue. 
You will see them drop in even up to nearly ten o'clock. 
The children appear thoroughly happy, and amuse them- 
selves in the corridors or playgrounds until nine o'clock. 
The first and second classes are inspected as to cleanliness, 
and then marched off to their class-rooms, where the first 
class have as an occupation " Folding," and the second class 
" Tablets." With these tablets the children are taught col- 
our and design, and these designs are reproduced in chalk 
on the blackboard by the teacher. You will notice that the 
children laugh and talk thoroughly at their ease, and 
there is no attempt on the teacher's part to restrain their 
natural restlessness. They consider it as wrong to try to 
make a child sit quite still, as it would be to tie him up 
in ropes to secure it. 

In the first class you will see the children making 
paper models of boats, houses, and so on, and then sailing 
their models on the water-trough placed on the teacher's 
table. 

What are the babies doing ? You will find that they 
are playing a circle game, under the direction of their 
teacher, in which full rein is given to the babies' 
boisterous fun. At half-past nine the lessons are changed. 
The first class march to their playroom and go through 
exercises in drill, to the accompaniment of a piano. The 
babies have " cubes," with which occur the usual exer- 
cises, but completed by each child making whatever 



274 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

form he pleases, and then conversing about it with the 
teacher. The second class, meanwhile, are engaged in 
blind man's buff in their playroom. At ten o'clock the 
next change takes place. The first and second classes 
are given pencils and slates, and leaves of trees are dis- 
tributed to each child, who then draws it by passing the 
pencil around it, the cleverer children also adding the 
veins. Whilst the drawing is going on the teacher of 
the first class converses with the children about the walk 
they had the day before through the wood, and she 
questions them about the trees and leaves they noticed, 
and at the same time shows them various kinds of 
leaves. The babies have meanwhile been playing an 
" Imitation " game. 

At half-past ten the first class plays a " Tree " game, 
which naturally follows their conversation on trees. 
The second class has gymnastics, whilst the babies are 
busy mat- weaving. 

At eleven o'clock the second class is busy at bead- 
threading on wires, and very pretty lace patterns are 
made. The first class is engaged in "Slats" — long 
strips of wood, with which they make patterns, either at 
the direction of the teacher or upon their own initiative, 
The babies have been out in the playground playing, 
and are now, at half-past eleven, ready to go home, and 
soon their elder brothers and sisters join them. Many 
of the children, however, dine at school, and the care- 
taker transforms one of the class-rooms into a dining- 
room. The tables are covered with smooth white table- 
cloths, and set with plates and spoons. To each child 
is served out a basin of capital soup, which the teachers 
also partake of 

At half-past one, afternoon school begins, the first 
class doing cardboard work, in which the children are 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 275 

encouraged to work out designs of their own. The 
second class is engaged on the second gift, supplemented 
by the children trying to knock down a column with 
their balls. The successful child at this improvised 
cock-shy is greeted with tumultuous applause. The 
babies have been playing " Little Fishes." 

At two o'clock the babies take up the first gift, whilst 
the older children take this half-hour for free-play in the 
playground. 

The next change occurs at half-past two, when the 
first class takes up stick-laying, and the second class 
perforating, by means of pads of felt, perforating card, 
and pricking needle. The children do not all do the 
same design, but are encouraged to follow their own 
invention. The babies play horses during" this half-hour. 

At three o'clock first and second classes go out to the 
playground to play with the teachers, whilst the babies 
are busy at interlacing paper bands, talking in the mean- 
time v/ith their teacher or their companions. 

At half-past three, the first class marches to the class- 
room, and takes up ring-laying, while the second class 
does sand-modelling, and the babies prepare to go home, 
which they all do at four o'clock, having doubtless spent 
a very pleasant day. 

The early infant schools of France, up to the time of 
the present Republic indeed, made it their chief object 
to prepare the children in the three R's for the primary 
school, but mainly owing to the efforts of Jules Ferry, 
Greard, and others, these have been done away with, and 
replaced by a system more in accordance with the spirit 
of Froebel's teaching. In 1887, a decree was issued in 
which it was laid down that the proper foundation for 
primary instruction is a training in which the physical 
and moral sides of a child's nature are as carefully trained 



276 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

an his mental powers. But even now, these schools are, 
it is said, far behind those of Belgium and Germany. 

M. Duplan, the Sub-Director of Primary Instruction 
in Paris, speaking in his report of these infant schools, 
says : 

" At half-past six in summer, and at half-past seven 
in winter, the caretaker is at her work, the fire burning, 
and everything in its place. The teacher on duty is the 
iirst to enter. She has to receive the children, and to 
supervise them. Until nine o'clock, the children as they 
arrive are gathered in the court in fine weather, in the 
playroom in unfa\'ourable weather, and play freely. 

" At nine o'clock all the teachers are at their posts. 
At the signal given by the directress, silence reigns, and 
the children group themselves in classes. From nine 
until half-past nine the inspection for cleanliness takes 
place, and the children are led to the lavatories and 
offices ; finally, at half-past nine, they enter the class- 
rooms singing. 

" The next period lasts until half-past ten — for an 
entire hour, intenseness of thought. Care is taken, 
therefore, to vary the exercises ; a little reading and 
writing, object lessons, and language exercises. After 
each exercise, songs and marching round the rooms. 
Thus the hour passes rapidly, and the fifteen minutes' 
recess which follows suffices to relax the fatigued little 
minds. 

" At quarter to eleven, the work is taken up again, 
varying each day. At one time the teacher tells instruc- 
tive and moral stories, at another time she takes up 
geography. 

" At half-past eleven the hour for luncheon has come. 
The children eat what they have brought, or what the 
school fare furnishes them. Then they play. At half- 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 277 

past one the work begins again, as in the morning, with 
reading and language exercises. At two o'clock follows 
arithmetic or singing, alternately for thirty minutes. 
From half-past two to three o'clock the little ones play 
in the playroom, or in the courtyard, while the bigger 
children are engaged in gymnastic exercises. From 
three to half-past three, drawing and manual wor'< are 
taken. Well-handled, these exercises are a veritable 
recreation, so that the lessons (in morals, or hygiene, or 
natural history) which follow from half-past three to 
four find the children's attention still bright. After four 
o'clock the children play in the courtyard, or on the 
covered playground, awaiting the arrival of those who 
come to fetch them." 

Just a word now on the buildings of these French 
Kindergartens. " The classrooms are large, well-lighted 
and cheerful. The reception hall in which the children 
eat their meals is spacious, and gives access to the play- 
ground. Planted with large and beautiful trees, which, 
in spite of their dense foliage, admit air and light, this 
playground is at once entertaining and instructive. En- 
tertaining, because here the children engage in their 
merry games ; and instructive, because it possesses a 
border, in which the head-teacher every year, in order 
to please the bigger children, has them sow wheat, rye, 
barley, oats, hemp, and flax. These plants, which the 
children are pleased to watch in their growth, furnish 
topics for interesting and profitable lessons. Besides 
useful plants of this kind, the border is edged by boxes 
full of beautiful flowers, which the children tend and 
care for themselves, and it is difficult to over-estimate 
the keen interest the children take in these boxes of 
flowers." (" A Day in a Maternal School," by Mdlle. 
Marie Hardy, in Commissioners' Report, 1 890-1, p. 739). 



278 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND AimOAD 

The Froebel Institute at Naples would take more time 
than I have at my disposal to describe. It is subsidised 
by the State, and consists of a Kindergarten in three 
divisions — a transition class, four elementary classes, a 
higher school of five classes, and a Froebel seminary 
for the training of teachers in Froebel's system. In the 
Kindergarten, the boys and girls are educated together, 
but not in the other classes. The Institute has over 
i,cxDO pupils. It should be noted in passing that in 
many foreign Kindergartens, the children are cleaned 
and fed at the school, that is, at the public expense. 
Listen now to what the teachers themselves tell us of 
their work. We will take the teacher of the babies first. 
She says : 

" Naturally this class, more than the others, preserves 
the tone of the famil)^ Here there are merriment, joy, 
and festivity without end. The occupations are simple, 
elementary, and always alternating with songs, games, 
and other diversions. However, everything is grouped 
as much as possible about a common object, so that the 
child may gradually learn to concentrate his attention 
upon a certain group of facts. A certain subject is 
chosen, either with the help of a story or of a stanza of 
poetry, or of a picture, and all the occupations serve to 
illustrate, to represent, and to explore the subject. The 
story should be short, clear, animated, and the children 
should take part in it, not only listening, but imitating 
in play the movement in part. Such a story furnishes 
material for an entire week. 

THE FROZEN BIRD. 

" Little Mary lived in a nice little house. She had a 
sweet little room all to herself, with a window from 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 279 

which she could look out into a large garden. Directly 
opposite, at a short distance from the window, there was 
a high tree, in which, during the summer, many little 
birds built their nests. One day it turned very cold, and 
the frost lasted for several days. Mary frequently looked 
out at her tree, for every day it lost more and more of 
its leaves, which had already turned quite yellow. It 
rained constantly, and one day, to her great surprise, 
when she stepped to the window, she saw that the tree 
and the window-sill were covered with snow. She 
opened the window, in order to scatter, as usual, crumbs 
of bread for the little birds that lived in the tree. But 
what did she see? A poor little bird, with its eyes 
closed, and quite cold. ' Poor little bird,' she exclaimed, 
taking it in her little hand, and breathing on it in order 
to warm it. Then she ran to mamma, crying : ' Look, 
mamma, what I have found — I fear it is dead.' And 
her mamma went immediately to get some cotton, with 
which she made a soft, warm nest for the poor little bird. 
Gradually the little bird began to get warm, and opened 
its little eyes. Then it began to eat, and at last to hop 
around the room. 

"Little Mary, full of joy, ran to get' a cage, put the 
little bird in it,'' saying, 'Now this will be your little 
house, and I shall be your little mamma, for it is cold 
out of doors, and it rains.' 

" From that day he was little Mary's friend. Every 
morning he woke her with his song, and Mary from her 
little bed wished him ' Good-morning.' After the winter 
came the spring, the trees began to put forth new leaves, 
and the little birds began to build nests among the 
branches. But Mary's little friend was still in his cage. 
He heard the songs of the other birds, and saw them 
flying about. He, too, would have liked to be with them 



28o SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

in the open air, and he became sad, and stopped singing. 
Mary noticed this, and, one beautiful day, she opened 
the cage, gave a last kiss to the little bird, and let him 
fly away. The happy little bird flew to the tree opposite 
the window, and there began to sing with all his might. 
Every morning after that he pecked at the window to 
greet his little Mary.' 

" After the story the children imitate the little birds in 
their games. When they return to their tables they 
build with cubes and bricks the little bed in which Mary 
slept, the window on which the little bird was found ; 
the garden and the trees covered with snow flakes are 
made in the sand table. The little balls are made to fly 
like the little birds, they are caught in the hands as 
Mary did the little bird, etc. Thus every occupation is 
related in some way to the little story." 

The teacher of the First Class writes : — 

" My class, being the third of the Kindergarten, forms 
the bridge from the Kindergarten to the school. Here 
the children are to be prepared to become good scholars. 
Hence certain occupations become more important than 
others. Such are drawing, number, and language 
exercises, the discussion of objects, and preparation for 
writing. The conversations tend to enlarge the ideas, 
to increase the knowledge of the child, as well as to give 
him conscious control of his speech. Having selected a 
subject of conversation, I let the children make short 
sentences about it. If I have, for instance, spoken of a 
dog, I let the children tell me all that Fido can do. 
Fido eats, Fido drinks, etc. I let the children see 
clearly that when I say Fido sleeps, I do not mean that 
he runs, and that when I call Fido, I do not mean 
Julius. I aim to impress upon the children that each 
word corresponds with a thing, an action, etc., and that 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOxME AND ABROAD 2S1 

everything has its own name. When they have ap- 
preciated the full word, I let them break it up in 
syllables, and finally in these various syllables I let them 
find the various sounds, leaving to the school the work 
of continuing this study on the synthetic side. Of equal 
importance are the first number exercises from one to 
ten, always in the form of play, and keeping from all 
abstract work. I let my children count numbers of 
things. These exercises constitute mental gymnastics, 
and are of much value if care is taken to avoid premature 
considerations of abstract work." 

She points out that in the Kindergarten Froebel 
endeavoured to cultivate the physical, moral, and mental 
faculties ; the first by gymnastics, the second by the 
love engendered between the teacher and taught. She 
adds : " Love is a fountain which must be reached in the 
education of a child. All in the Kindergarten is love — 
love of the teacher for the children, of the children 
among themselves, and for their other mamma. This 
love should extend to all within the reach of these little 
ones, and find fresh food in intercourse with nature. To 
make the flowers speak as well as the bird and its little 
ones, and the meanest worm to endow it with a soul 
with affections and feelings while the child is near, so 
that he may love and respect them — this is the great 
secret. The world of the little child should teem with 
love. He becomes good through contact with nature. 
All teaching should tend to establish habits of order, of 
accuracy, of neatness, and nourish in the child the 
sentiments of the beautiful and the good. In his work 
the child should experience a sense of gratification that 
makes him love his work. In his occupations the child 
is, at first, directed by the teacher. Subsequently he 
invents for himself In this lies the chief value of the 

18 



282 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

occupation, for it is creative work that gives strength of 
mind, and engages all its powers and enables it to feel 
as it were, its own value." 

Let us now gather up our ideas, after this too rapid 
review of some Continental Kindergartens. We notice 
that the lessons are short, and you will remember that 
the Board of Education in the Instructions to Inspectors, 
says : " The infant school contemplates in the length, 
variety, and character of its lessons the training of 
scholars whose delicate frames require very careful treat- 
ment. It is essential, therefore, that the length of the 
lesson should not in any case exceed thirty minutes, and 
should be confined in most cases to twenty minutes, and 
that the lessons should be varied in length according to 
the section of the school. In the babies' room, which 
should always, when circumstances permit, be separated 
from other rooms by a partition, and should contain 
abundant space for games and exercises, the actual work 
of the lesson should not be more than a quarter of an 
hour. Each lesson should be followed by intervals of 
rest or singing." 

It must be remembered that in advocating the 
principles of Kindergarten training, one does not mean 
thereby the neglect of the teaching of the three R's but 
rather that the three R's be taught by more intelligent 
methods, and less reliance be placed on the memory ; for 
example, that number be taught by means of the gifts, 
and not by memorising tables. As Sir George Kekewich 
long ago pointed out, our duty and privilege is not to 
do the work of Standard I., but rather to prepare the 
soil, so that when the time comes for the child to take 
up the work of Standard I. he will be prepared, not 
because he has already done similar work, but because 
his intelligence has been cultivated, and his love of 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 283 

knowledge kindled. Let me emphasize this point. You 
infant teachers should have a distinct aim of your own, 
quite apart from that of the other schools. Your ideal 
is to train up and turn out, not so many children who 
can do Standard I. work, but children whose powers 
have been so developed that the work of Standard I., 
although new, is easy to them. The course and aim of 
the infant school should be complete in themselves. 

In taking up an occupation, always ask yourself, 
What is the educative value of this occupation? How 
do I propose to train the children through it ? Do not 
take up an occupation simply because it is pretty, but 
on the other hand do not reject it because it is pretty. 

Another point must be kept in view and it is this, — 
that the larger muscles and nerves of the child must be 
cultivated before the smaller, and that consequently 
anything that cultivates the finer muscles and nerves 
before the larger and coarser is wrong. Hence it is 
wrong to give a child fine work of any kind to do, and 
I am not sure that not a few Kindergarten occupations 
are to be condemned, because they involve the cultiva- 
tion of the finer nerve centres. Fine work, whether of 
the fingers or the eyes, is not suitable for little children- 
Needlework, for example, is prohibited in French infant 
schools. 

In drawing out a time-table, it is desirable so to place 
the lessons that the afternoon may be mainly taken up 
with the Kindergarten gifts and occupations, and that 
the work of the babies should be varied often, and inter- 
spersed with games, songs, and marching. In teaching 
reading, one finds occasionally that from lOO to 160 
pages of reading matter are gone through so diligently 
that a clever child can go on reading with his book shut. 
This is best obviated by doing less reading from the 



284 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

book, and more reading from the black-board. Get the 
children to tell you in a simple sentence of their own 
making what they see in a picture, etc., then print this and 
other similar sentences on the black-board, and then later 
on, after a lesson on word-building, get the children to 
read them."* The phonic values of the letters should be 
taught, so that the lessons in word-building and sentence- 
forming, which would generally be the only reading 
lessons of the second class, may have an intelligible 
basis. In American schools you will see the teacher 
call three children out, tell one to pronounce b, the 
middle one a, and the last child g. They then pro- 
nounce it in sequence, slowly at first, and then more 
rapidly, so that the children distinguish how the com- 
bination of the three sounds forms the complete sound 
of the word. 

In the babies' class, the forms and sounds of the 
letters of the alphabet (when taught) might be taught 
by Stick-laying, Drawing, the Kindergarten Alphabet 
(pieces of cardboard to form letters) ; Pictorial Alphabet 
(for teaching the sounds). We must, however, teach 
these little ones to speak, before teaching them to read. 

In writing, one should remember that writing is only 
a special form of drawing, and that consequently it is 
important that the babies should, at any rate, spend 
much more time at drawing than writing. I have 
visited schools where the babies did no writing, but only 
drawing, and the writing of the First Class certainly 
seemed none the worse for it. The drawing of the 



* In some infant schools, an apparatus for printing letters and 
words on large sheets of paper fixed to the blackboard is now used, 
and by this means the children make their own " Readers " — a 
highly ingenious device. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 285 

babies should be natural and not across or through 
squares. Besides drawing, laths, stick-laying, and 
writing (better still, drawing) in sand are all admirable 
means of teaching the lower class the rudiments of 
writing and reading. 

I now come to arithmetic and number exercises. 
Slate arithmetic * should be, I think, restricted entirely 
to the First Class, and even there to the latter portion 
of the school year. Further, to teach these little ones to 
do sums up to hundreds and thousands, as is sometimes 
done, is, I think, unwise, for these numbers are quite 
beyond their comprehension, and that they can do such 
sums at all is evidence of remarkable memories, but 
certainly not necessarily of intelligence. I do not 
wonder that so much time is taken for " tables " if the 
children are expected to do such sums. These numbers, 
moreover, are generally given in the abstract form, 
whereas nothing but concrete quantities should be dealt 
with in an infant school. Much better is it, I think, to 
fix, say, the number five for your Third Class, and 
allow the teacher to give the number exercises always 
within that number. The following gifts may be utilised 
here : — 

Gift Three, 

Stick-laying, and 

Number pictures. 
The number pictures are helpful in teaching the children 
to recognise a group, and so ultimately doing away with 
unit (and its concomitant finger counting). 

In the Second Class the work should be entirely of an 
oral and concrete character, and with, say, ten as the 
outside number. The occupations most suitable are : — 

* When taken. 



286 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Gifts Three and Four, 

Stick-laying, 

Ball or Number Frame, and 

Number pictures. 

With respect to the number lessons of your First 
Class, the Instructions say : 

" In arithmetic no sums on slates should be attempted 
until the children are familiarised with the four processes 
by easy mental work. For example, the number 20 
may be taken, and after counting by cubes, or other 
objects, the children will dissect the number, find out in 
how many ways it is made up, and perform all the 
arithmetical processes, both orally and in writing, that 
can be dealt with within that limit." 

Gifts three, four, five, and six will be helpful here, and 
I would also suggest cardboard coins for the children to 
play " keeping shop." I saw a most interesting lesson 
in a school recently, in which various articles, which the 
children themselves had made, were sold, and the correct 
change asked for and given. Weights, again, and a pair 
of scales will be found helpful, for it is surprising how 
vague children's ideas are even in the older school of 
the relative values of different weights. 

The next element of training I shall touch upon is 
the teaching of colour and form, but only very briefly. 
Colour should be taken first, and in teaching colour, one 
should, of course, be careful not to name the colour until 
one is sure the children can recognise the identity of the 
colour in different objects, e.g., I show the children a red 
ball, then ask them to show me objects of a similar 
colour, then name the colour. In teaching form and 
colour to the babies. Gift I., Stick-laying, Drawing, and 
Mat-weaving are useful, also picking out and matching 
colours in wool, etc. " Ravelling " is also a very suitable 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 287 

occupation for teaching colour, whilst for teaching the 
secondary colours to the First Class, the celluloid colour 
films, and brush work are very useful.* In the Second 
Class for this subject of instruction, the following have 
been suggested : — 

Gift II., with Modelling, 

Stick and Tablet-laying, 

Paper Folding, 

Drawing, 

Picking out, Matching and naming Primary 
and Secondary colours. 
In First Class : — 

Modelling, 

Paper-folding, Cutting, and Mounting. 

Drawing, 

Perforating and Embroidery, 
A word now as to fairy tales and story-telling. I 
believe in cultivating the children's imagination for many 
reasons, but chiefly because it takes them out of them- 
selves, from this sordid, hurrying, work-a-day world to 
a land of perennial sunshine and glorious impossibilities. 
Some authorities, I know, think that a child cannot too 
early learn the reality, and, shall I say? the logical 
cruelty of facts. But I believe in first of all making 
the children happy, even though it be but for an hour. 
Happiness is so rare in this world that I think you are 
giving the child a great treasure in an hour of unalloyed 
joy. He will have few such in his after life. How often 
is it that the gloomy asceticism which some of us call 
religion is forced upon the children whose religion should 

* Brush work, free drawing, and modelling are it would seem 
invaluable as educative instruments for the training of little 
children. 



288 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

be as Christ taught it, and as bright as the flowers they 
love so well ! So let each of your teachers, and you also, 
tell the children fairy and other stories such as those in 
Miss Poulsson's " In the Child World," or Miss Wiltse's 
" Kindergarten Tales," say, three or four times a week ; 
get the children to talk about the story, and take a part 
in the story ; ask them what they would do under such 
conditions, and so on. Similarly in picture lessons, 
which should also come often, get the children to talk 
about what they see in the picture, and to give their 
ideas in their own language. Here is a picture lesson 
from a German school : — 

" Then followed a language lesson, which had for its 
subject " The Winter." A large picture was used. It is 
a magnificent winter landscape. In the background was 
seen a city with smoke-stacks, church steeples, etc ; on 
the left a road with a blacksmith's shop, on the right a 
pond on which children skated ; in the foreground a 
coasting slide and a group of children making a snow- 
man were seen. The picture offered several other 
interesting scenes, such as cutting ice on the pond, 
sleighing, shovelling snow, etc. High up in the grey, 
wintry air were seen crows. The hillsides, roads, roofs, 
trees, and bushes were covered with snow." 

" I cannot sketch the entire lesson. Only one episode 
is vividly impressed on my memory. I will endeavour 
to reproduce it, for it is a proof of how consistently little 
children of six years can reason out things, and how well 
they talk when they have something to say. 

" Teacher : What kind of a bird is this ? 

" Pupil : A crov/. 

" Teacher : What do 3'ou notice on the snow around 
tlie bird ? 

" Pupil : Many of the crow's footprints. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 289 

" Teacher : What do they tell you ? 

" Pupil : That the bird must have hopped about there. 

" Teacher : What may it want there ? 

" Pupil : It is looking for food ; it may be hungry. 

" Teacher : Is the crow a shy bird, or as free and easy 
as a sparrow ? 

" Pupil : I think it is a very shy bird. 

" Teacher : Where does it build its nest ? 

" Pupil : High up in the trees of the woods, far away 
from houses. 

" Teacher : What, then, may be the reason of its coming 
so near to the blacksmith's shop, where boys are playing 
and dogs are kept ? 

" Pupil : Because it is likely to find food near a shop 
like that. 

" Teacher : Yes ; but if it is so shy a bird as you say it 
is, I should think it would not dare to come so near men 
and their houses. 

"Pupil : Well, I think it wouldn't if it could find any 
food in the fields. But don't you see the fields are covered 
with deep snow ? How will a poor crow get food there ? 
So it comes near the blacksmith's shop. It is very 
hungry, and I think those crows high up in the air have 
sent this one down to see whether there is any food to 
be found. If they get a chance, they will come too and 
get some. 

" Teacher : Yes, dear, that's very well said. I think 
that must be it." ("European Schools" by L. R. Klemm). 

I should now like to direct your attention to what is 
called the centre-point, that is to say, making all your 
lessons for a certain period hinge upon a particular set 
of ideas usually embodied in the nature lessons. We 
have already noticed examples of this in Continental 
schools, and I will just give one or two other examples : — 



290 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

JULY.* 

Week I : — 

Nature Lesson. — The Frog. 

Story. — Introduction to " Water Babies." 

Song or Game. — " Tradesmen " (" Songs and Games," 
Keatley Moore). "Frogs and Birds" ("Kindergarten 
Songs and Games," Berry and Michaelis). 
Week 2 : — 

Nature Lesson. — The Dragon-fly. 

Story. — " Tom's First Lesson." 

Song or Game. — " Fish in the Brook " (" Mutter-und- 
Kose-Lieder," trans. Miss Blow). 
Week 3 : — 

Nature Lesson. — The Gnat. 

Story. — " Tom's Step Downwards." 

Song or Game. — " Gnats " (" Six Nature Games," 
Anderton — Charles and Dible, price 6d.). 
Week 4 : — 

Nature Lesson. — A talk about the changes seen in 
Caterpillar, Bee, Frog, Dragon-fly, Gnat, etc. 

Story. — Conclusion. 

Song or Game. — " Come and Form a Ring," or " The 
Seasons " (" Kindergarten Songs and Games "). 

SEPTEMBER. 

Week I : — 

Nature Lesson. — Fruits and Dandelion. 

Story. — " Iduna " (" Heroes of Asgard "). 

Song or Game. — " Dandelion Clocks " (" Six Nature 
Games "). 
Week 2 : — 

Nature Lesson. — Primrose and Buttercup. 

* " Child Life." 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HUME AND ABROAD 291 

Story. — " Iduna " — continued. 

Song or Game. — " Autumn " (" Music for the Kinder- 
garten," Heerwart). 
Week 3 : — 

Nature Lesson. — Hips and Haws. 

Story. — " The Sleeping Beauty." 

Song or Game.—" A Little Boy's Walk " (E. Pouls- 
son's " Finger Plays "). 
Week 4 : — 

Nature Lesson. — Blackberries. 

Story.—" Baldur " (" Heroes of Asgard "). 

Song or Game. — " Autumn " (" Music for the Kinder- 
garten ") ; or " The Wandering Song " (" Mutter-und- 
Kose-Lieder "). 

Here is a scheme of lessons for a month, suggested by 
Miss Dodd :— 

SEPTEMBER. 

I. — STORIES. 

1. Paris and the Apple. 

2. Atalanta and the Apples. 

II. — OBJECT LESSONS. 

1. Examination of the Apple and its parts (stalk, 
skin, pulp, juice, core, pippins). 

2. Examination of a Pear and its parts. 

3. Apple and Pear compared and contrasted. 

4. The Apple Tree. 

Illustrations of apples and pears, and sections of apples 
and pears were skilfully drawn in coloured chalks on the 
blackboard. The children painted apples and pears and 
fruit trees in connection with some of the lessons. 



292 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

HI. — SONG GAME. 

" The Apples, O the Apples, O." 
" The Trees." 

DRAWING. 

1. Wall of the orchard. 

2. Gate of the orchard. 

3. Ladder. 

4. Apple and pear. 

5. Leaves of apple tree. 

6. Barrel of apples. 

MODELLING IN CLAY. 

1. Apple. 

2. Pear. 

3. Cider cup. 

4. Jam pot. 

ARITHMETIC. 

Easy problems, using apples as concrete objects. 

Here is another scheme for six-year-old children for 
June, on Peas and Beans (also from Miss Dodd's book). 

I. — STORIES. 

"Jack and the Beanstalk." 
" Little Peablossom." 

II. — OBJECT LESSONS. 

1. The pea flower and bean flower compared. 

2. Development of pod, and examination of pod. 

3. The pea and bean plants compared. 

4. Shelling and cooking peas. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 293 

These lessons were illustrated by many charming 
sketches in coloured chalks on the blackboard. 

HI. — DRAWING. 

1. Pea leaf and pea pod. 

2. Opening pod showing peas. 

3. Watering-can to water the peas. 

4. Dish to contain the peas. 

Painting pea and bean blossoms was an additional 
exercise. 

IV. — MODELLING. 

1. Leaf of the pea. 

2. Pea pod. 

3. Dish to contain the peas. 

4. Cover of pea dish. 

V. — SONG. 
" The Little Gardener." 

VI. — PAPER-FOLDING AND CUTTING. 

Fences for training the peas. 

VII. — ARITHMETIC. 

Easy problems in addition and subtraction, using 
peas as concrete objects. 

VIII. — FINGER WORK. 

Chair and tables made of softened peas and thin 
laths. 

" Some time before the lessons took place, peas and 
beans were put into saucers of water, and allowed 
to sprout. The children watched the process, and 



294 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

examined the sprouted peas and beans in the object 
lessons." 

My purpose is now completed. I have endeavoured to 
place before you pictures of Continental Kindergartens 
painted by the teachers themselves. I do not think it 
necessary or desirable that we should take these as 
models. Indeed such would be impossible. In Germany 
the Kindergarten may not concern itself with teaching 
the three R's ; in France again many of the infant classes 
retain all the worst characteristics of English infant 
schools of the old days ; in no country is there a compre- 
hensive system of infant training such as England 
provides. 

There is nothing to be despondent about in our infant 
schools, but much to be hopeful for. Some of our 
infant schools are perfect " republics of childhood," and 
the future progress of the other schools is dependent 
entirely upon the facility with which they adopt those 
principles of training which Froebel enunciated and 
Dickens preached. 

Nothing indicates the pulse of public opinion more 
sensitively or accurately than the public school. A 
community always deserves the school it possesses. 
Quicken public life and you will revolutionise the school. 
If bigotry and intolerance are found in the school, then 
be sure they flourish outside. To reform the schools 
necessitates only educating public opinion. But that is 
a gigantic task needing a strong character and unique 
talents. It is an easy matter to frame laws for a ready 
community — it is a different matter to find and to pre- 
pare your ready community. The man who can lift 
public opinion a step, who can show us how to make 
" the bounds of freedom wider yet," who can lead us to 
consider the possibility of even allowing some spontaneity 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 295 

to those little helots of modern society — children, who can 
reassure us as to the improbability of the body politic 
tumbling round our ears, should children be allowed to 
grow as children, such a one is indeed a great reformer, 
a great benefactor, in a word a great educator. This 
was the work of Charles Dickens to which he devoted 
his incomparable genius, and all his heart. What made 
Dickens' advocacy so irresistible was that the purity of 
it was beyond inuendo. He was no professional peda- 
gogue, he had no axe to grind or books to sell — simply 
souls to save. Dickens came to his task with a certain 
" intellectual detachment " which disarmed criticism and 
compelled attention. And so was effected that revolu- 
tion in English thought which may be symbolised by 
two buildings — the prison and the board school. This 
new spirit is not confined to the school ; it has permeated 
our morals, our ethics, our religion. It has brightened 
the homes and the hearts of thousands, nay, tens of 
thousands of our English children. The child which had 
become the fiend of a gloomy theology was again placed 
upon the pedestal where Raphael placed it — again 
became the young God in the Madonna's arms leading 
the race upward in its evolutionary march to perfect 
development and freedom. This nineteenth century 
renaissance was mainly the work of Charles Dickens. 
Dickens saw the nobility and sacredness of the teachers' 
work ; he saw that without that sympathy wherein soul 
speaks to soul school is indeed a sepulchre. 

In conclusion allow me to quote an American educator's 
words on the high dignity of the teacher's calling, adding 
in parenthesis my conviction that it is those lands 
where the honour in which the teacher's office is held 
highest that are just those where education is most 
efficient. 



296 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

" I want even our humblest teachers to have some 
higher appreciation of the honour and dignity that 
belongs to their work. As they come here and see the 
noble army of men and women engaged in it, I cannot 
but think that they may return to their work with some 
new pride in it. Let them reflect for a moment what is 
the dignity and grandeur of the material upon which 
they work. It is the soul, the mind of the child infinitely 
nobler that the canvas upon which Raphael painted the 
Madonna with a beauty born in Heaven, purer and 
whiter than the whitest Italian marble from which 
Michael Angelo freed from its imprisonment the form of 
a Moses or of a David. The materials with which they 
work are not the mere pigments of a painter, or the 
chisel of a sculptor, but the humblest ' schoolmarm,' the 
humblest kindergartner that is trying to teach the child 
some idea of geometrical forms should remember that 
she is planting for ever in his mind one of the great 
ideas of which God has builded the world. The humblest 
' schoolmarm ' in the remotest log house in Northern 
Michigan or Wisconsin should remember that when she 
is teaching the A B's to the stammering boy at her feet 
she is placing before him a ladder on which he may yet 
climb to the stars. That is the work in which you are 
engaged. Be proud of it. Never be ashamed of it. The 
rewards in money are small but the rewards in gratitude 
and love of your disciples are beyond the purchasing 
power of gold. The teacher's profession is a fountain of 
youth. I have seen many a teacher with grey hairs and 
some with bald heads, but I never saw an old teacher 
yet. The smile and play of youth are ever on his face, 
because he is ever associated with the child and thinking 
the glad and happy thoughts of children." (Dr. J. B. 
Angell.) 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 297 

ADDENDUM. 

I have added for purposes of comparison with tliesc 
foreign schools pictures of tzvo of our ozvn schools as 
sketched by the teacJiers the?nselves. 

Outline of Correlated Scheme of Instruction 
IN an Infant School. 

Lessons for a Week in March, 1901. 



Classes i and 2. 1 j and 4. Babies. 

I " The maid was in the 
A windy day. j garden hanging out the 



Wind and dust. 



clothes.' 



Morning. 



The children assembled at 9. 20 punctually, in one room. 
School was opened by the head teacher with the repeti- 
tion of the Lord's Prayer, Morning Hymn and Greeting, 
and the National Anthem. 

This was followed by a short Scripture story of " Christ 
stilling the Tempest," selected for its connection with 
the week's lesson on the Wind. 

Descriptive songs such as: — 

" I saw you toss the kites on high" 

" The wind at play." 

" Who is this that's calling down the lane." 

were next sung and the words explained. 

After this the children marched to their classes for the 
" Morning Talk " and " Story," given by each teacher. 
Reading followed, and was closely associated with the 
chat about the Wind, by a sentence taken from the 
Story printed and illustrated on calico by the teacher. 
This sentence was the ground work for word-building, 

19 



298 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

free drawing, and children's original sentence- making, 
syllable and letter sounds, suitable actions, etc. 

The ringing of the bell announced time for play. 
After this came writing which was almost a continuation 
of the reading lesson, words and sentences from the 
week's lesson being attempted. 

Number occupation followed, and illustrated addition, 
subtraction, multiplication and division by games, free- 
drawing, or stick-laying with a certain number of sticks 
such objects as ships, busy windmills, fans, etc. The 
morning's occupation closed with simple physical 
exercises and imitation drills of sailing ships, weather- 
vanes, windmills, etc. Throughout the whole of the 
morning's lessons the "Work of the Wind" was the 
leading feature. 

Afternoon. 

All the afternoon's occupations had a close relationship 
with the morning's lessons. The stories were ^sop's 
Fable of the " Wind and the Sun " and an adapted story 
of the disasters which happened to Tommy's kite and 
his mother's clothes line caused by the gambols of 
Mr. Wind. 

These stories were converted into dramatic games or 
moving life-pictures followed by a song or recitation. 

The work of the whole day was ended with a suitable 
hand occupation, thus leaving a permanent impression 
of all which had been taught, played, or talked about. 

The occupations which best illustrated the Wind 
lesson were : — 

1. Ruler drawing and colouring of windmill. 

2. Paper folding of boats, which were afterwards 
sailed on a bowl of water. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 299 

3. Paper kites, made and taken by the children into 
the playground, practically illustrated the song " I saw 
you toss the kites on high." 

4. Blowing bubbles. 

5. Sewing and pricking a weather-vane. 

6. Template drawing, colouring and pricking of wind- 
mill. 

7. Folding fans, folding and cutting windmills and 
fastening to a stick. 

8. Free drawing of picture lesson. 

9. Cutting out Nellie's clothes for the line. 

Babies' Room. 

In this class all was " make believe " and sense impres- 
sions. The lessons were adapted by the Nursery Rhyme 
and conversational pictures to the week's lesson. 

Vivid impressions of what the wind can do were 
brought out by a lively representation of the " The 
maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes." 

The toy clothes-props and lines were used, and busy 
children unconsciously learned what the wind could do 
as they sang and played the old Nursery Rhyme " Sing 
a song of sixpence." 

The alphabet was taught through word and letter 
sounds. Such a sentence as " The maid was in the 
garden " had an " R " in " garden " for the chief letter 
of the lesson. A little girl with letter " R " card sus- 
pended round her neck was the " maid " " hanging out 
the clothes," and thus prominently kept " R in garden " 
well in view. 

Printing, writing, and drawing were also atternpted. 
The number occupation and game of birds flying 
about and resting on the clothes line amused and 



300 SCHOOLS at home and abroad 

instructed. Games, physical exercises, and action songs 
frequently interspersed the short lessons. 

The afternoon's varied occupations were: — Bead neck- 
lace for the maid ; cutting out paper apron for her ; 
sewing with a bootlace on a card a picture of Tommy's 
house ; blowing bubbles, folding and sailing Tommy's 
paper boat ; ball action songs of " Hush a bye baby on 
the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock," 
etc. 

Throughout all the lessons the child's activity was 
prominently in evidence in the Babies' Room. 

Comments. 

Slates are not in use, but small blackboards, plain and 
lined paper and sand-trays are used for writing, printing, 
number symbols and free drawing. 

When weather permits, the children of Classes i, 2, 3 
and 4 take a walk with their teachers ; they are trained 
to observe closely, and are encouraged, when they return 
to give a word or free drawing picture of what they have 
seen. 

Ideals and Aims. 

1. To foster an intelligent habit of observation and 
simple reasoning powers. 

2. The association of one lesson with another through 
some one leading idea or ideas. 

3. " Action instead of abstract learning, and character 
building." (Froebel). 

4. Inventiveness and self reliance cultivated by (a) 
Expression through picture drawing ; (b) Language 
expression by a child telling a story in his or her own 
words. 



the kindergarten at home and abroad 30i 

The Work of a Second School. 

The Concentric Method of Instruction has been 
adopted in this school since September, 1899, and in 
the opinion of the teachers it is an immense improve- 
ment on the former methods. 

Under the old regime a class might have a lesson on 
an Apple, followed by a reading lesson on the Cow, a 
recitation about the Sea, a song of the Bees, and per- 
haps a game of the Farmyard, children modelled apples 
and pears, coloured flowers and fruit. Thus, although 
much pains were taken by the teacher, the knowledge 
acquired by the children was unconnected, and could 
make but little impression on their minds. But with 
the Concentric System all this is changed and changed 
for the better. The Nature or Object Lesson is the 
point or centre towards which all the other lessons con- 
verge — yet in such a way as not to weary the child's 
mind, for, although the same object is brought up again 
and again, it is always with some new feature which 
keeps up the children's interest. 

This school opens at 9.30. When prayers are said 
badges of punctuality are distributed to those who are 
then present. These badges are simply rosettes of 
coloured braid sewn on another piece of braid and worn 
round the neck. The children thus decorated are eligible 
for all the little offices that children love to perform, /.«,, 
keep the cloak room tidy, pick up papers, give out or 
take up pencils, books, etc. And last, but not least, they 
are privileged to sit in the front benches, and are pointed 
out to managers and visitors as the " best children." 
By this means we try to instil a habit of punctuality. 
The first lesson in every class is the Nature Lesson or 
a story leading up to it. This story (which need not be 



302 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the same for every class) is illustrated by the teacher on 
the black-board with coloured chalk. It lasts from lo 
to 1 5 minutes, and at the end the children are encour- 
aged to " tell " it to the teacher in their own words. If 
the story has been already told the teacher refers to it, 
shows the illustration and questions about it, and then 
goes on from it to the Nature Lesson. 

The aim of the teacher is not so much to supply a 
certain amount of information on a given subject as to 
" draw " out the children, to train them to observe and 
to help them to express their own ideas in correct 
language. 

We work from a scheme drawn up for each month, 
and a glance at it shows the teacher what she has to 
prepare. But although all work from the same scheme, 
each teacher is allowed perfect liberty in her treatment 
of the specified subject, and is encouraged to use her 
own brains as much as possible. As an instance of this 
I may mention that when we took up this method there 
was only one teacher who could draw, that is one 
teacher who possessed a " D." When it was announced 
that Object Lessons, number lessons and stories must be 
illustrated for the future, there was nothing but con- 
sternation on every face, but when it had to be done, 
each one set herself to the task, with the result that even 
the youngest teacher thinks it the ordinary thing now 
to take chalk and illustrate her lessons. 

The lessons are chosen to suit the time of the year, 
as much as possible — for this present month, June, the 
lessons are — Parts of a flower. The Rose (June roses). 
The Bee (The flower's visitor). The story taken to intro- 
duce the lessons is " The Fairy and her friends " from 
the Granville Readers, Standard III. Apart from its 
utility in leading up to the lessons, it gives an oppor- 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 303 

tunity of impressing on the children's minds the virtues 
of truthfuhiess and unselfishness. Different flowers are 
illustrated on the black-board, and teacher questions 
and supplies information. At the end of the Nature 
Lesson, Writing is taken — the word chosen being the 
name of a flower, or something about a flower, generally- 
supplied by the children, e.g. " Roses are red " etc. 
Half an hour is devoted to writing, but the distribution 
and collection of pencils and copy-books must be in- 
cluded in that time. The Number Lesson follows the 
Writing, and is treated much like a game. The children 
are sent to market to buy and sell all sorts of things 
according to the lesson. At present they are often 
gardeners counting their trees, flowers, etc., and selling 
and buying the same. At other times teacher draws 
a field on black-board in which five pigs or sheep play 
many pranks — appearing and disappearing while the 
children tell the number of legs, tails, eyes, ears, etc. 
All sums take the form of simple problems — very easy 
of course, but involving at least addition and subtraction, 
and later on multiplication and division (for Class I.) 

Children are now allowed fifteen minutes recreation, 
after which comes Reading. The black-board is largely 
used, and there is quite an exciting and amusing quarter 
of an hour spent in Word-building, and especially 
Sentence-making. The Teacher chooses a word oc- 
curring in the Object Lesson, and asks for sentences. 
She prints on black-board the sentence she considers 
best, greatly to the delight of the child who made it. 
These sentences form the reading matter, and by 
changing a word here and there the children are pre- 
vented from learning them by heart. By means of the 
" Easy Sign Marker " these sentences are preserved and 
form reading sheets really made by the children. The 



304 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

same may be said for the little stories retold by them 
in very simple words. They furnish additional matter 
for practice in reading. 

The afternoon is entirely devoted to Kindergarten 
Gifts and Occupations, Singing, Drill and Games. The 
occupations taken this month by Class I. are as follows : — 

(i) Brushwork — Yellow and purple daisies. 

(2) Clay Modelling — Sun-flower, Bee-hive. 

(3) Colouring — Different flowers. 

(4) Embroidery — Lily and poppy. 

(5) Sand Modelling — A Garden. 

(6) Free Arm Drawing — Beehive, Flower-pot. 
The Recitation — Queen Rose. 

Song — Song of the Bees. 

Game — Jack's Dream (Kindergarten play). 

Drawing — Garden gate, rake, watering-can, 
spade, pump, garden seat. 
The same methods are used in Class II. but more help 
is given and less expected from the children. They 
have the same songs and games as Class I., but the 
recitations and Kindergarten occupations are different, 
and are utilised to illustrate the Nature Lesson. They 
are as follows : — 

(i) Clay Modelling — Cherries, plums. 

(2) Stencilling— Roses and poppies. 

(3) Free Arm Drawing — Flower-pot. 

(4) Figure Laying — Pump and watering-can. 

(5) Cubes — Garden wall ; well. 

(6) Stick Laying — Flower-pot and flower ; 

flower-beds. 

(7) Paper Folding — Windows and roof of Green- 

house. 

(8) Cork Work — Garden seats ; ladder. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 3OS 

For the third Class or Babies, there is a special Time 
Table. Each lesson occupies no more than twenty 
minutes, and is followed by a song, game or physical 
exercise. Many little devices are adopted for teaching 
the letters pleasantly, amongst which are — letter forming, 
rainbow paths, giant letters. Nursery rhymes are an 
unfailing source of delight to the babies, for they not 
only sing, but they also act them. Coloured chalk is in 
great demand in the Babies' Room, for there every little 
story is illustrated. The simplest drawing executed by 
a teacher before her class seems to have more charm for 
all infants than the most beautiful picture hung before 
them. 

The Kindergarten occupations in the Babies' Class are 
numerous, so that they may not become tired of, or ac- 
customed to, any one. All need not be used every month, 
but as many as possible are utilised to illustrate the 
lesson. The Object Lesson for May was Birds, and 
the following occupations were used in connection with 
it:— 

(i) Ravelling — A bird's nest. 

(2) Drawing in sand — Bird and bird's nest. 

(3) Bead threading — Black, yellow, red and 

brown beads to represent blackbird, canary, 
robin, and sparrow. 

(4) Stick laying — Tree, in which was nest. 

(5) Straw and paper threading — Birds on tree. 

(6) Bamboo work — Cage. 

(7) Pin and bead work — Outlining a bird with 

pins and beads. 

Story — The Crippled Sparrow. 

Recitation — The Naughty Sparrow. 

Song and Game — Birdies in the greenwood. 



306 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Babies are encouraged to talk to teacher about what 
they are making, and a language lesson is great fun — 
teacher does something or touches something and children 
tell her what she is doing. 

The babies, as well as the older infants, are taught 
to answer in complete sentences — very short and simple 
it is true — but no easy matter to obtain, still, with patience 
and perseverance it comes at last. Games and Marching 
play an important part in the Babies' Class, as they are 
very frequently resorted to, not only with a view to 
physical training, but also as means of brightening up 
the children between the lessons. Sand trays provide 
unlimited amusement for the babies ; they never seem 
to tire of them, and it is by means of them that the little 
ones receive their first ideas of writing and free-arm 
drawing. Number is taught on the Kindergarten 
principle. Children count and perform little problems 
by means of the beads, sticks, cubes, or whatever they 
actually have in their hands, but these objects are not 
looked upon as beads, sticks, etc., they become for the 
time birds, sheep, dogs or anything else that the teacher 
likes or the object lesson suggests. 

With regard to the number of Kindergarten gifts and 
occupations, we consider it more advantageous to the 
children to provide several occupations, and thus ensure 
variety, than to aim at great excellence in a few. As to 
the choice of these gifts, etc., they are chosen more with 
a view to their educational value in the development 
of the children's faculties than to their mere prettiness, 
although we constantly find that the occupations that 
most delight and interest the children, are those that 
appeal to their sense of the beautiful. 

The teachers do not forget that their aim should be 
to make the school a pleasant place, to which the 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HOME AND ABROAD 307 

children like to come, because they are happy there ; for 
then they will more easily imbibe those ideas of truthful- 
ness, honesty, order, and cleanliness which every true 
teacher tries to instil into the minds of her children. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD. 

You will all, doubtless, have read that noble ode of 
Wordsworth's on Immortality, in which the poet excelling 
himself sings : — 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting : 
The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And Cometh from afar : 

Not in entire forgetfulness. 

And not in utter nakedness. 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 

From God, Who is our home : 
Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
Shades of the prison house begin to close 

Upon the growing boy. 
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows 

(He sees it in his joy ;) 
The youth, who daily farther from the east 
Must travel, still is nature's priest, 

And by the vision splendid 

Is on his way attended ; 
At length the man perceives it die away 
And fade into the light of common day. 

I imagine that that idea of the little ones trailing clouds 
of glory is one of the most exquisitely beautiful concep- 
tions in the whole range of English literature, nevertheless 
I would point out that the poet was not a teacher. So 
much depends upon the point of view; yet even ive must 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 309 

confess that there is to be observed by the sympathetic 
and keen watcher much in the child that is not earthly, 
and all of us would silently acquiesce in Tom Hood's 
regret that 

'tis little joy 

To know I'm farther off from Heaven 

Than when I was a boy. 

There is nothing so interesting as a child. His quaint 
ideas, foolish fears, and playful imaginings are full of 
instruction and interest to everyone ; but to those who 
are concerned in his nurture it is more than an interesting- 
study, it is a duty to make themselves familiar with the 
growth and development of these fair plants which le 
bon Dieu has given into our care. And yet, although 
men have talked on education since the time of Aristotle 
and Plato, and indeed before, yet it is only in these latter 
days that the child, his mental and physical develop- 
ment, has become a subject of study in the scientific 
sense. Yet, how unsatisfactory, how futile must be any 
system of education which does not rest on the bed rock 
of child study'! I need not illustrate my point further 
than to say that it was left for Froebel, less than 100 
years ago, to point out that the education of children 
should be largely occupied in cultivating, not repressing 
the self activity of the child ; and that to Herbert Spencer 
it was left to tell us that the mind really appropriates 
only the knowledge that affords it pleasure and agree- 
able exercise. 

How many a mother has repressed the mental growth 
of her child, yet as Fenelon the French writer long since 
told them, — " Curiosity in children is a natural tendency 
which comes as the precursor of instruction. Do not 
fail to take advantage of it. . . . For example in 
the country they see a mill and they wish to know what 



3IO SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

it is. They should be shown the manner of preparing 
the food that is needed for human use. They notice 
harvesters and what they are doing should be explained 
to them ; also how the wheat is sown and how it multiplies 
in the earth. In the city they see shops where different 
wares are sold. You should never be annoyed by their 
questions ; these are so many opportunities offered you 
by nature for facilitating the work of instruction. Show 
that you take pleasure in answering such questions and 
by this means you will insensibly teach them how all 
the things are made that serve human needs and that 
give rise to commercial pursuits." 

Now let me go somewhat more fully into the advantages 
of child study. Here are some of the truths that have 
already been demonstrated by the students of this 
science. It has for example been shown that children 
grow more tall in the spring and fat in the autumn of 
each year, and that different parts of the body grow at 
different times. Again, " Times of physical growth are 
also times of mental growth in acquisition though 
children then are not able to systematise well." 
Consequently one would advise a father to take a 
growing son to the Paris Exhibition, let him see 
everything, but don't bother him about what he sees 
there. Another example of what a study of children 
may accomplish is, that an Italian writer, after a careful 
investigation, has shown that the music written for 
children of from three to six years of age. Kindergarten 
songs and the like, is either wrong in using a compass 
not at all suited to the voices of the children of these 
ages, or quite contrary to every law of infantile physio- 
logical pedagogy and of musical aesthetics. 

Another point has been emphasised by these investi- 
gations, and it is this, that the larger muscles and nerves 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 3 II 

of the child must be cultivated before the smaller, and 
that consequently anything that cultivates the finer 
muscles and nerves before the larger and coarser is wrong. 
Hence it is very wrong to give a child fine work of any 
kind to do, and I am not sure that not a few Kinder- 
garten occupations are to be condemned, because they 
involve the cultivation of fhe finer nerve centres. It is, 
I believe, much better to give a little child twine and a 
packing needle than a needle and thread to sew with. 
Any fine work whether of the fingers or the eyes is not 
suitable for little children. Again, how often do we tell 
our little ones to "sit still " or " be quiet " — whereas it is 
an absolutely demonstrated fact that it is impossible for 
a child to sit still for one minute, and certainly Mother 
Nature never intended him to do so. 

" For instance, in our tests the children were requested 
to stand still and then to sit still. We went through 
the classes of the grammar school. We only asked 
them to sit still a minute, then we reduced the time to 
half a minute, and we did not find a child who could sit 
still one half of a minute ; limbs, tongues, hands, fingers, 
were certain to move. Of course with a little attention 
it made it all the worse. We saw the secret which has 
brought premature grey hairs to schoolmasters and 
schoolmistresses. We found that the idea that children 
can sit still must be abandoned, and that teachers must 
learn to possess their nerves and patience if the children 
do not sit still."* (Dr. Hall.) 

*Dr. Stanley Hall's opinion is thus summed up : " But the great 
result of it all is this : That the modern school seems to be a 
force tending to physical degener :cy. It is very hard for a child 
to sit four or five or six hours a day during eight or ten months in 
a rather imperfect air, in a rather unphysiological seat with the 
only strain thrown upon the little muscles which wag the tongue. 



312 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Here again is the result of an investigation into 
what a town child knows when he first enters school. 
" Thirty three per cent, of these Boston children on 
entering school had never seen a live chicken : 5 1 per 
cent, had never seen a robin ; 75 per cent, had never 
seen a growing strawberry, 71 per cent, had never seen 
a bean growing. Many of them, it was found, had no 
idea as to how big a cow is. One thought a cow was as 
large as her cat's tail. Another thought that a cow was as 
big as her thumb nail."* How often is a mother surprised 
at questions or observations of a child. A boy of three 
years and nine months would thus attack his mother. 
" What does frogs eat and mice and birds and butterflies ? 

Nature has made it very hard for a healthy child to sit still ; and 
when we consider that children, the civilized world over, and in 
countries barely civilized all go to school, we see what a tremend- 
ous danger there is that the race will be imperfectly developed. 
How sad the thought that the race may, indeed, almost must 
degenerate in its efforts towards the realisation of its loftiest ideals. 
I don't know what you say ; I for one believe it would be a 
thousand times better that the children should grow up in ignorance 
of all that our schools teach, valuable as it is, than for the race 
to continue in its peril of physical degeneracy, which seems 
inevitable under our present system. For myself, I say, what 
shall it profit a child if it gain the whole world of knowledge and 
lose its own health .'' or what shall a child give in exchange for its 
health ? " 

This "sad thought" of Dr. Hall's may be placed alongside and 
compared with the discussion on the disadvantages of the erect 
biped position on the physical and mental evolution of man in "Man 
and Woman," by Havelock Ellis. These are the revenges of 
Nature. 

* What is the cause of this lack of interest in nature-study? Dr. 
Hall says, " I believe this to be simply due to the fact that city life 
has taken children away from nature, so that the real love of the 
children has not been given free course. It is impossible in the 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 313 

and what does they do ? and what is their names ? What 
is all their houses names ? what does they call their 
streets and places ?" &c., &c. 

Other favourite questions are — 

Why do the leaves fall ? 

Why does the thunder make such a noise ? 

Where does all the wind go to ? 
These questions are best answered by a little fiction, e.g., 
the leaves are old and tired of hanging and want to go 
to sleep, or the thunder giant is in a very bad temper, or, 
if asked what becomes of all the old moons, a child is 
readily satisfied by the reply that they are cut up and 
made into stars. A little child asked her mother why 
there was water in the river, and was told, " Because 
there must be water somewhere but not everywhere." 
Another child asked why beans grew in the earth. Her 
mother answered, " Do you not grow every day ? and 
kittens, don't they grow ? all animals get bigger, and 
little ones become great ones ? And the plants do just 

large cities to teach these nature subjects as they ought to be 
taught. Blackboards will not do. It grieves one to see these 
blackboard leaves when they are the whole text of instruction in 
our common schools. Flowers do not grow in chalk frames. 
They have got to have the environment of grass and trees and 
sky in order to touch the soul. Nature is the first love of every 
child, and every child who does not feel this love is in an abnormal 
state. We have been cross-questioning a good many children in 
reference to their feeling towards nature. We found a good many 
who said, 'this tree or this rose-bush knows me or knows when I 
come here.' One said, 'I can see this one languish because the 
other is cut down.' Another said, 'I always knew the differencee 
between a fool tree and a wise tree, and I thought everybody did. 
' I know,' said another one, ' that trees feel it if their limbs are 
cut off.' We had children who talked to their doll and their pet 
hen. We had one child who said she understood her lamb. ' I 

20 



314 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

the same." Another child asked why water was not 
wine. His father asked him in answer, " Is a dog a cat? 
wine is wine, and water is water." — (Perez.) 

We are all of us so apt to make our own minds the 
normal that anything not quite in accordance with our 
preconceived ideas as to the eternal fitness of things 
pains and surprises us. A little German girl of 2| years 
lost her little brother and seemed for some days 
strangely indifferent, but missing him one day, she 
asked her mother what had become of him. On 
this the mother began to cry, and the child in endeavour- 
ing to comfort her, as children will, said. " Never mind, 
Mamma,you will get a better boy. He was a ragamuffin." 
Here is another example. A child of four years 
old had lost one of his favourite companions. He was 
taken to the little boy's house and the father took him 
on his lap and held him there a few minutes while 
giving way to a fit of weeping. The child understood 
nothing of all this grief; he got down as quickly as he 
could, disported himself a little while about the room, 

know he knows me for when I put out my hand he sees me and 
puts out his hand, I shake my head, he shakes his head.' The 
child philosophy about all these things is a natural philosophy. 
The little girls who hug and kiss their pigs and are not reproved 
by their mothers are indeed children of nature. The children who 
really make friends of the flowers and whose hearts go out to the 
stars, they are the children who can be understood and who can 
understand nature's language. Premature, pallid little Christians 
they will never be. You cannot induct children into the love of 
nature by the use of microscope and charts. There must be a 
previous sympathetic ground work. And I say to those who love 
children you must love nature and children and God together. 
They were never meant to be separated and cannot be separated 
without injury to all. Religion is locked in the love of nature and 
without the love of nature and the love of God all is sham." 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 315 

and then suddenly going back to the poor father ex - 
claimed. " Now that Peter is dead, you will give me 
his horse and his drum won't you ? " 

Professor Sully tells us of a little boy of two years 
and two months, who, after nearly killing a fly on the 
window pane, seemed surprised and disturbed, and aft er 
looking round for an explanation then gave it himse If 
" Mr. Fy don to by-by." Much has been written and said 
of the cruelty of children, and anyone who has seen a child 
maul a kitten or worry a pup must regretfully confess that 
the trailing clouds of glory cannot hide these fiendish pro- 
pensitiesof the young animal. Nevertheless we must be on 
our guard against exaggerating these deficiencies. How 
much of this cruelty is due to ignorance of suffering it is 
difficult to say, but it is not difficult to give numberless 
instances of genuine kindness and love towards animals 
by children. Why, they even pity the stones on the 
roadside because they have to lie so long in the same 
place, and the leaves because they fall, and pins because 
they are bent. An amusing instance of a child's 
sympathy to the animal world was told me the other 
day by a headmistress. In the schoolroom a number of 
silk worms had been reared, and after being carefully 
fed had been placed in separate baskets against the wall 
in order to spin. The teacher had explained that they 
were not to have any more food, which cruel privation 
evidently troubled some of the infants, for during the 
dinner hour a small boy knocked at the door and asked 
permission if he might come in and watch the silk- 
worms work. Permission was granted, and the teacher 
watched this generous youth. When he thought him- 
self unobserved, he was seen to stare fixedly down into 
the basket, surreptitiously pull an apple out of his 
pocket, bite a piece off and drop it into the basket with 



3l6 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

these words, — " Please, Mr. Silkworm, Miss nor 

teacher won't give you sumpsing to eat. There — eat 
that." This he did for each basket. Many other 
amusing examples of the same amiable trait occur, 
e.g. : — A little American boy, five years old, was playing 
with a tadpole till it died. Immediately the other 
tadpoles ate it up, and the child burst out crying. His 
elder sister, with the best of intentions, tried to comfort 
him by saying — " Don't cry, William, he's gone to a 
better place," to which rather ill-timed assurance he 
retorted sceptically — •' Are his brothers' and sisters' 
stomachs a better place } " 

A fond mother once said to her little son of six — 
" Why Dick, I believe you are kinder to the animals 
than to me." " Perhaps I am," said he, " you see, they 
are not so well off as yuu are." 

But children's sympathies are not confined to the animal 
world, e.g. : — A little girl of seven, who had just lost 
her grandfather, was heard to pray thus — " Please, God, 
grandpapa has gone to you. Please take great care of 
him. Please always mind and shut the door because he 
can't stand the draughts." " I know," (says Perez) " a 
little child not yet three who is a striking example of 
what has been aptly called the ' memory of the heart.' 
His grandfather and father, whom he was very fond of, 
are both dead. The grandfather had been dead a year 
and the father five months. Not a day passes that he 
does not speak of them. Whenever he is taken to his 
grandfather's house he seats himself on his grandfather's 
arm-chair, asks to have the curtain lifted up from grand- 
papa's picture, and looks at it with an expression of real 
emotion. At home he asks every day for the photo- 
graph of his father ; he kisses it and makes his sister 
and his elder brother do the same. He understands 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 317 

why his mother is sad, and says to her, — ' You are sad 
because father is not here.' If he sees her crying he 
kisses her and says, — ' Don't cry, I will go and fetch 
papa, I will make him come back, I have got the key 
of Paradise.' " Their antipathies are equally cos- 
mopolitan as was shown by the little girl who was 
observed scribbling something on paper and then 
burying it in the garden. On being dug up the letter 
was found to be as follows : " Dear Devil, — Please come 
and take aunty soon ; I cannot stand her much longer." 
It is interesting to note this young lady's ideas of 
Satan's home address. 

Dr. Henry has given a number of very amusing 
childrens' sayings in a recent number of the " Irish 
School Monthly." 

In a reference to the unconscious irreverence of child- 
dren, he tells us of " a little girl of five, who inquired of 
her sister : ' Who makes the leaves come on the trees ? 
Does Allman ?' (Allman was the gardener). 

" ' No,' replied the sister. ' God makes the leaves 
come on the trees.' 

' I'm sure Allman doesn't let God come meddling 
in this garden,' retorted the little one." 

Jacky longed above all things for a bicycle — longed 
and prayed that someone would give him one. Every 
day he came downstairs hoping to find the bicycle in the 
hall. At last something came, but it was a tricycle. His 
mother who was lying in wait heard a heavy sigh, and 
'O God, I did think You would have known the difference 
between a tricycle and a bicycle." 

Another little boy asked his mother one day. " Have 
I been good lately ? " 

" I think you have," was the answer. 

" Oh, well ! I shall leave off praying now, for 



318 SCHOOLS AT HOME ^ND ABROAD 

it's no use asking God to make me good, if I am 
good." 

Dr. Henry also reminds us of the boy who said that 
" Lying Hps are an abomination to the Lord, but a sure 
and present help in time of trouble." 

A little girl who was asked what is the best food for 
babies replied. " Oxygen, hydrogen, and a little carbon." 

Various young geographers have mentioned Sodom 
and Gomorrah as the two most famous volcanoes in 
Europe, and have informed examiners that the Nile rises 
in Mungo Park. 

The following essay is said to have been the work of 
a schoolboy. However, " I ha'e me doots." 

"Henry VHI. was the greatest widower that ever 
lived. He was born at Anno Domino in the year 
1066. He had 510 wives, besides women and children. 
The first was beheaded and afterwards executed : 
the second was revoked. She never smiled again. 
The greatest man in this reign was Lord Wolsey. 
He was called the ' Boy Bachelor,' being born at the 
age of 1 5, unmarried. Had he served his wife as diligently 
as he served the king, she would not have deprived him 
of his grey hairs. In this reign the Bible was translated 
into Latin by Titus Oates, who was ordered by the king 
to be chained up in the church. It was in this reign that 
the Duke of Wellington discovered America, and invented 
curfew bells to prevent fires in theatres. Henry VIII. 
was succeeded by his great-grandmother, the beautiful 
and accomplished Mary Queen of Scots, sometimes called 
' Lady of the Lake' or the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel.' 

It is a most interesting and instructive fact that every 
child born into this world is not only deaf and dumb, but 
blind also, and remains so for some days after its birth. 
The helplessness of the new-born child as compared 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CIIILDIIOOn 319 

with the ready resource of the new-born chicken, which 
on stepping out of its shell will pick up a seed, is 
remarkable, and is, at first sight, somewhat staggering 
to the complacency of the lord of creation. 

I have already referred to the awkward and embarrass- 
ing questions put by children, which should be met 
by encouragement not by reproof. Thus children will 
sometimes ask " Where is yesterday gone to ? and where 
will to-morrow come from ? " A clue to many of these 
questions and to children's thoughts generally is to be 
found in the keen imagination of children and in their 
being unable to conceive of abstract ideas. Time, such 
as days, years and so on, is very real to them, just as 
real as fairies and giants are. All the universe is full of 
life to them, and it is no more absurd to a child to hear 
of a bird or wolf speaking than to hear his own play- 
mates speak. A little girl 2| years old having a string 
attached to a ball put into her hand, after swinging- 
it round mechanically began to notice the ball's own 
movements and said to herself, " funny ball." Another 
little girl two years old being asked by her mother for a 
kiss answered "Tiss gone away." A small boy of three 
having climbed into a very high wagg(jn was asked 
" How are you going to get out," replied, " I can stay 
here till it gets little, and then I can get out myself" 
This is a curious idea which children have that some 
things grow small as others grow big, and is doubtless 
due to seeing old people as age creeps on getting shorter 
and shorter. A girl five years old stopped one day 
trundling her hoop, and, turning to her mother, ex- 
claimed, " Ma, I do think this hoop must be alive, 
it is so sensible ; it goes where it wants to." Children 
again when they see the sea for the first time some- 
times burst out crying and imagine it is chasing them ; 



320 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

they are afraid of it as of a huge giant. We all 
know how a child will scold a table or wall against 
which it has hurt itself We must continually re- 
member that these questions of the child are perfectly 
natural, and " the outcome not merely of ignorance and 
curiosity, but also of a deeper motive, a sense of 
perplexity, of mystery, or contradiction." Then do not 
check children's questions, for as Sully says : — " More 
pathetic than the saddest of questions is the silencing 
of questions by the loss of faith," It is the duty then of 
all interested in children to endeavour to find out and 
sympathise with their way of looking at things. The 
child is so imaginative, so lacks experience as to neglect 
the es.sential for the incidental. A boy was asked by 
an Inspector "What is grass?" and the reply was 
" Grass is what you got to keep off of" To find 
out the contents of children's minds is our first 
step. Here are some of the results obtained by an 
American observer. He set questions which were 
designed to draw out the ideas of children 5 years of 
age on number, colour, power of observation. 

1. What is a brook? Amongst the answers were — 

Water that has flies on, 

A little thing that water runs in. 

2. What is a pond ? 

Where there are frogs. 
Round and water stays in it. 
To set on and fish. 

3. What is a hill ? 

A steep place. 
Big steep dirt. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 32 1 

A place to slide down. 
A big big place of earth. 
A bump. 

4. What is a chicken ? 

Got feathers on. 

Is good to eat. 

Makes eggs. 

Can lay eggs and wear feathers. 

5. What is a cow ? 

What has a tail. 
That got hair on. 
It's a bossy. 
That hooks people. 
Something like a mule with horns, 
and another well known answer is, — 
" A cow 'as got four legs, one on each corner." 

5. What is a tree ? 

Got roots and limbs. 
To sit under. 
To climb upon. 
To make the wind blow. 
This last is a delightfully interesting answer. 

7. Where do beans grow ? 

Under the ground. 
On trees. 
At the store. 

8. Where do potatoes grow ? 

On trees. 

Taters don't grows. 



322 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

9. What is right ? 

Not to be naught}\ 

To worl<, 

To behave. 

To work and be nice and kind. 

To mind mama. 

To set the table. 

Not to run away. 

When he don't He or steal. 

10. What is a school? 
Schoolhouse. 
Show you ABC. 
Where children come. 
To learn lessons. 
To spell and read. 
It's here. 
To put little kids in. 

In an essay on " Bread " a Glamorganshire youth 
finished up that " 'Tis not right to eat bread by itsel^ 
for the Bible do say man shall not live by bread alone, 
therefore mother do give us cheese and butter with it." 

Children are terribly logical and always probe the 
most sacred secrets in search of a cause. You all 
remember that intensely strong picture of the child's 
craving for a cause portrayed in the opening chapter of 
Olive Schreiner's " Story of a South African Farm," 
and every thoughtful child passes through a similar 
experience. " Nothing is more interesting to a child.' 
says Sully, " than the production of thing.s. What hours 
and hours does he not spend in wondering how the 
pebbles, the stones, the birds, the babies are made." A 
child asked his father why he did not make a hole in 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 323 

the water by putting his hand into it. A Catholic 
priest was somewhat awed by a boy of eight saying to 
him. ' Please, Father, why don't God kill the devil and 
then there would be no more wickedness in the world.' 

" Children begin to speculate about the other side of 
the world, and are apt to fancy they can know about it 
by peeping down a well." I remember as a boy the 
many pools about my home which were reputed to be 
bottomless, and it always worried me to account for 
these ponds being generally full of water. 

Children are often extremely egotistical : " ikkle vie " is 
the centre of their universe. A lady was talking to her 
little girl of three and mentioned incidentally something 
that happened before the child was born. The child in 
utter amazement cried, " But, Mamma, what did you 
do without Ethel ? (child). Did you cry all day for 
her ? " A somewhat conceited child of five was addressed 
by a visitor, " Why, Willie, however did the world go 
round before you came into it." The reply immediately 
was, " Why, // didn't go round. It only began five years 
ago." Another child asked, " Where was I a hundred 
years ago ? and where was I before I was born ? " 

Here is a charming dialogue from Sully between a 
mother and her child. 

Child : " Why must people die, mamma ? " 

Mamma : " They get worn out, and so can't live 
always, just as the flowers and leaves fade and die." 

Ch. : " Well, but why can't they come to life again just 
like the flowers ? " 

Ma. : " The same flowers don't come to life again, 
dear." 

Ch. : " Well, the little seed out of the flower drops into 
the earth and springs up again into a flower. Why 
can't people do like that ? " 



324 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Ma. : " Most people get very tired and want to sleep 
for ever." 

Ch. ; "Oh! I shan't want to sleep for ever, and 
when I am buried I shall try to wake up again ; 
and there won't be any earth on my eyes, will there 
mamma?" 

Here is another conversation between a mother and a 
child : 

" What are seals killed for mamma ? " 

" For the sake of their skins and oil." 

(Turning to a picture of a stag). " Why do they kill 
the stags ? They don't want their skins, do they ? " 

"No, they kill them because they like to chase them." 

" Why don't policeman stop them ? " 

" The}^ can't do that, because people are allowed to 
kill them." 

(Loudly and passionately). " Allowed, allowed ? 
People are not allowed to take other people and kill 
them." 

" People think there is a difference between killing men 
and killing animals." 

But the boy was not thus to be pacified. He looked 
woe begone, and said to his mother piteously. " You 
don't understand me." No, we don't understand this 
fine sensibility of the child, this trailing cloud of glory. 
What a horrible chaos of wrong and chance this world 
seems to the child! Everything is out of joint; the 
harsh realities and cruel crudities of life are crushing him 
in on every side. 

To the child, death is very terrible ; this pushing down 
into the cold clammy earth is horribly repugnant to the 
bright gladsomeness of these little ones. It is not only 
wrong, it is cruel, to speak much to little children of 
death. " A little girl of 3I years asked her mother to 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 325 

put a great stone on her head because she did not want 
to die. She was asked how a stone would prevent it, 
and answered with perfect childish logic ' Because I shall 
not grow tall if you put a great stone on my head ; and 
people who grow tall get old, and then die.' " Children's 
ideas of death are s(jmetimes as if it were merely a sleep- 
ing ; €.£-., a little boy of 2|, on hearing of the death of a 
lady, asked his mother " Will Mrs. Jones still be dead 
when we go back to London ? " A boy 4 years old said 
to his father, " Did you know they have taken Mr. 
Williams to Grafton ? " " Yes," replied the father, and 
the boy added. " Well, I s'pose it's the best thing. His 
children are buried there, and they wouldn't know he 
was dead if he were buried here." As a small boy, I 
always hoped to die young, because I was told that when 
people grow up they get wicked, and so forfeit their 
chance of a better land, but I am sure that the awful fear 
of death, so characteristic of most children, was never 
realised by me, probably because I had had but little 
experience of it. I well remember going to see my boon 
companion lying dead, and what struck me most of all 
was not the solemnity nor the horror of it all, but the 
beauty. The dead child's features so often seen full of 
pain in life, (for he was a little hunchback), were now 
beautifully placid and calm. 

But all this leads me to sa}' something of the fears of 
children. There is nothing so painful to a child as 
seclusion. To shut a child up in a dark room is the 
very acme of cruelty. Nothing of the ingenuity of 
cruelty so characteristic of meditieval torturers exceeds 
this ready punishment of a thoughtless parent. 

The fear of the dark is another characteristic of 
children. You will remember how R. L. Stevenson 
describes this : 



326 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Now my little heart goes beating like a drum 

With the breath of the Bogie in my hair ; 
And all round the candle the crooked shadows come 

And go marching along up the stair ; 
The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp, 

The shadow of the child that goes to bed, 
All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp. 

With the black night overhead. 

Victor Hugo describes how little Cosette when sent 
out into the dark " felt herself seized by the black enormity 
of Nature. It was not only terror which possessed her, 
it was something more terrible even than terror." A lad 
of four himself said " Do you know what I thought 
dark was ? A great large live thing the colour of black 
with a mouth and eyes." As a lad, I had a real fear of 
the dark, and it was enhanced by the fact that my two 
miles walk home from the school was largely through 
a dense wood. A farm labourer on one occasion amused 
himself by lying in wait for me and giving me a very 
severe fright. 

There is nothing so wicked, so wrong, so pregnant 
with mischief, as frightening children — mothers should 
be careful of picturing terrors to children, even when 
prompted by religious or moral motives. Many children's 
nerves have been, I believe, ruined by too early an intro- 
duction to the horrors of this or some other world. A 
little Welsh girl of about seven years old was staying 
with her grand-parents, and had been accustomed to 
hear daily much of the horrors of sin and of hell. Her 
nerves were doubtless unstrung, and in this state a foolish 
neighbour told her of the awful accident that had happened 
to some little children who had gone to a theatre in 
Sunderland. Every night after this, on being put to bed, 
she would break out into bitter sobs which sleep alone 
stopped, and this sleep only came by sheer exhaustion 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 327 

of crying. Ultimately, her granny succeeded in reassur- 
ing her. " Don't you cry Shanny fach, they were only 
EnglisJi children." The distinction was sufficient, and 
the evening sobbing ceased. In such states of nervous 
collapse as these, much can be done by a tactful mother 
to reassure and strengthen the unstrung nerves of the 
little one. How careful should one be not to repulse 
the little confidant. The mother is always the child's 
refuge and strong tower of defence. Let me quote, 
" How unhappy those children must be, who, being fear- 
some by nature, lack this refuge, who are left much alone 
to wrestle with their horrors as best they may, and are 
rudely repulsed when they bare their heart quakings to 
others, I would not venture to say. Still less should I care 
to suggest what is suffered by those unfortunates who 
find in those about them not comfort, assurance, support 
in their fearsome moments, but the w^orst source of their 
terrors. To be brutal to these small sensitive organisms, 
to practise on their terrors, to take delight in exciting 
the wild stare and wilder shriek of terror, this is, perhaps, 
one of the strange things which make one believe in the 
old dogma that the devil can enter into men and women." 
I have already referred to the imagination of children. 
It is difficult for adults to realise what kind of a world 
children live in. In childhood, imagination is the most 
powerful faculty of the brain ; as the child grows this 
becomes subdued gradually by reason, until in the normal 
adult the imagination plays quite a subordinate part in 
the day's work. To the child every stone, tree, and 
flower is alive — fairies and gnomes are more real than 
niggers and flying fish. His world is peopled with strange 
beings, and he resents the facts of every-day life. To 
him a talking wolf is no greater phenomenon than a 
running brook. The phantasies of the imagination are 



328 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

to the child the realities of existence. What his mind 
conjures up when his eyes are closed, are real and true 
things, and the creations of his dreams are but the more 
beautiful or it may be the more horrible beings that fill 
so large a space in his little world. A French writer 
says, '• Dreams are the poems of children, who, even 
when awake, are always more or less of poets. Ah, the 
strange dramas, the merry comedies, the sparkling idylls, 
the dismal elegies, the thrilling odes which have haunted 
in their cradles the brains of future poets ! Fictitious 
inventions which will, perhaps return to them later in 
life without being recognised, when they^think they are 
imagining quite new and original combinations." And 
he adds : " Let it then be our endeavour to make this 
present — which is everything to children — happy and 
joyous ; let us by all means insure to them that happiness 
which costs so little and which is the first condition of 
their moral progress. Happy children ai-e good children!' 
This truth brings home to all of us the moral signi- 
ficance of such social reforms as the better housing and 
living of our poor. A new street of sanitary dwellings 
or a pleasant school, is, I think, of greater moral value to 
a town than many sermons. But to return to this 
imagination of children. " All that children see they 
believe to be exactly as they see it. All that is told to 
them rises in vivid images before them. All the ideas 
that are suggested to them appear to them in a visible 
form, and they instantly proceed to execute them. . . . 
Children are veritable automatons, obeying consciously 
or unconsciously, with more or less entire docility, the 
tyrannical influence of an image that suggests itself or 
is presented to their minds." This power of suggestion 
on the child's mind is a most dangerous fact, and it is 
now recognised by legal experts that not rarely the 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 329 

inuendoes of the mother, and the imagination of the 
child, have given rise to appalling and demonstrably 
impossible charges, just as hysteria has originated similar 
charges by women. 

It is a common belief that children are naturally not 
truthful, and indeed, strictly speaking, this charge is true, 
but how far the lie is a conscious one is another matter. 
Some few weeks ago I visited an evening school, and 
outside the playground, playing by electric light, were 
several boys of from four to six years old. They came 
up to me, and one of them, probably four years old, 
volunteered the statement that Billy Jones had thrown 
a stone and cracked the glass of the " cullectric " light. 
This Billy Jones denied, so I asked the informer to show 
me the crack. We walked up to the light, suspended 
some 10 feet from the ground, and after a careful scrutiny 
I saw that there was no crack in the glass. I told the 
boy this, and he, without hesitation said, " Oh iss, I 
'member now, I mended it." Somewhat abashed by 
his effrontery, I, in an apologetic tone, asked him how 
he managed to get at it. He at once replied, " Oh, I 
climbed the wall and reached the glass with my stick." 
I departed, a sadder and a wiser man. Of course, there 
are various kinds of children's lies ; for example, when a 
little girl tells you that her Dolly is crying, I do not 
think there is any need for a moral corrective, or else 
when I draw on a blackboard certain figures and tell the 
children they are pigs, I fear that the same corrective 
would be necessary. Here is an example of another 
kind, given by Sully, " I was giving some cough syrup 
and Amy (aged 3 years and 2 months) ran to me, saying, 
* I am sick too, and I want some medicine.' She then 
tried to cough. Every time she would see me taking 
the syrup bottle afterwards, she would begin to cough. 

21 



330 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

The syrup was very sweet." In another case, a little 
girl broke her tea things, and when her mother came 
up to her, she said, " Mamma broke tea things — beat 
mamma," and immediately proceeded to beat her 
mother. A mite of three, in a moment of anger, called 
her mother a " monkey," and being questioned as to 
what she said, replied, " I said I was a monke)'." 
Another little girl, being put out by something the 
mother had said or done, cried " Nasty," then, after a 
significant silence, corrected herself in this wise, " Dolly 
nasty." Here is another instance, " Naughty, naughty," 
said a little child of 2^ to its mother, who was putting 
it into a bath against its will. " What," said the mother, 
" is that how you speak to me ? " " No, no, it's not you, 
it's the water that's naughty," was the prompt reply. A 
relative of mine used to be much worried by her younger 
child, a boy, who was put in the cot with his bottle and 
his little sister. Every night the boy used to start crying, 
and it was only after some time that the cause was dis- 
covered by the mother. There was the little girl with 
the titty bottle of the baby in her mouth, and murmuring, 
" Izshy bye, baby dear." A little girl, three years old, 
seeing her mother fondling her brother for several 
minutes without taking any notice of her, said all of a 
sudden, " You don't know, mamma, how naughty Henry 
has been to the parrot." This falsehood was suggested 
by jealousy. This lying of children is largely imitative. 
Children are keen observ^ers and soon notice and en- 
deavour to imitate the prevarications of their elders. 
Children can be moulded into whatever form you desire, 
and if you wish your child to be a truthful man, treat 
him kindly — don't scold him unnecessarily, and above 
all, let him see that your word is your bond. Never 
never promise children anything you cannot or will not do. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 33 1 

Let me now say a few words as to the language of 
children. It is a curious fact that the involuntary 
babblings of the new born child comprise every simple 
sound in our speech, which months later it is only 
by much toil and constant endeavour that the child is 
able to acquire the intelligent use of Nurses sometimes 
imagine that the baby is talking to itself when thus 
babbling, but this is nothing but a pretty conceit. 

The earliest language of children is largely imitative ; 
thus we have the words bow-wow, moo-moo. Then 
again, children often simplify words, e.g., biscuit becomes 
bik, handkerchief becomes hanky ; other words they 
transpose, e.g., sugar becomes hoogshur, spoon to spoon, 
and so on. 

Children at first apply the word bow-wow to all dogs, 
indeed, often to all animals having a tail and four legs, 
just as the baby calls every man dada, or woman 
mamma. Taine tells us of a child who, after first 
applying the word " fafer " (from chemin de fer) to 
railway engines, went on to transfer it to a steaming 
coffee pot and everything that hissed or smoked or 
made a noise. " A star, for example, looked at as a 
small bright spot, was called by one child an eye." 
Another child called the opal globe of a lighted lamp a 
" moon." Pin was extended by a child to a crumb 
just picked up, a fly, and a caterpillar, and seemed to 
mean something little taken between the fingers. The 
same child used the word "iz/" (hat) for anything put 
on the head, including a hair brush. 

" A little child, a year old, could not see a hat or 
bonnet or any article which appeared to be a covering 
for the head, without saying, ' Mene, mene' (promener), 
by which he meant that some one was to take him by 
the hand and lead him out for a walk. Whilst playing 



332 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

one day at a table, he took a little round mat, and put it 
on his head, calling out ' Mene, men6.' He said the 
same thing also when his aunt touched an umbrella. 
The word ' peudu ' (perdu) is associated in his m.ind 
with the idea of any object that he sees fall down, and 
which he throws away or which he cannot see when he 
hears it talked about. One day he took my hand with 
both his, stroked it, shook it about like one of his play- 
things, and then, the fancy seizing him to throw it on 
the ground, he pushed it away, and let go of it, saying, 
' Peudu,' and looking on the floor to see where it had 
gone. If a flower is given him to smell, he sniffs at it 
for a few moments, and then immediately oflers it to 
someone else to smell. When he is walking in the 
garden by the flower beds, he seizes hold of the stalks 
of flowers, drags them towards him and gives whatever 
remains in his hands to someone to smell. The sight of 
the smoke which I puff out of my lips when indulging in 
a cigar causes him to make a very curious movement of 
expiration resembling the action of a smoker." — [Peres.] 

Another child used the word "i'ej/" for other bright metal 
things as ' money.' Romanes' child extended the word 
" star " the first vocable learned after Mamma and Papa, 
to bright objects generally, candles, gas-flames, etc. 
A little girl said " Boo (the name of her cat) dot tail 
poor Babba dot no tail," and proceeded to look for hers. 
A boy once said he was " sorrified " from horrified. 
Children often attach their own meanings to words. 
A boy and a girl, twins, had been dressed alike. Later 
on, the boy was put into a suit. A lady asked the girl 
about this time whether they were not the twins, when 
she replied, " No, we used to be." (Sully.) 

An Inspector asked a school girl "What is an average?" 
and was somewhat startled to have the reply " What the 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 333 

hens lays eggs on." Of course the child had probably 
heard her mother say the hen lays so many eggs on an 
average. A boy used to say " Harold be Thy name," 
for " Hallowed be Thy name." A little girl who knew 

the poem 

" The doctor came and shook his head 
And gave him nasty physic too," 

on catching a cold, asked " Will the doctor come and 
shook my head?" The response in the Litany some- 
times becomes, in children's mouths, " and incline our 
aunts to keep the snow," but this is probably due to 
faulty hearing. A boy said a certain day was a 
*' hollorday," because it was a day to holloa in ! " 

I don't know if any of you have ever noticed how 
particular children are in their use of words, and how 
they resent their stories being mauled by a novice. I 
can reme::.ber telling two children a new story nearly 
every evening before they went to bed. Occasionally I 
attempted to repeat a story, but it generally ended in 
disaster, for the smallest deviation from the original 
story, met with vigorous protests. " Shall I read to 
you out of this book, baby ? " said a mother to her boy 
of 2i years old. "No," replied the infant, "not out of dot 
book, but somepy inside of it." A boy insisted that 
in buying a cart load of cat's meat the purchaser was 
entitled to the horse in the shafts. 

Other interesting phases of child life, such as their 
jealousy,* inventiveness, and predatory instincts, I must 

* One of my nephews, at the age of three years, used continually 
to talk of the little brother he was soon to have. " I shall love him 
so much," he would say at every instant. But when he saw the 
baby taking up his mother's lap and kisses and caresses and his 
father^s care and attention, he expressed his annoyance loudly. 
He even said to his mother one day, "Won't little Ferdinand soon 



334 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

leave alone. An instance of a similar jealous tempera- 
ment has been brought to my notice where the younger 
of two children, a boy, whenever his sister had a clean 
pinafore put on, and girl-like strutted about in it, 
would force her into a corner and throw the contents of 
his teacup at her and so spoil the fine clean pinny. 

Let me say a word or two as to the child as moralist. 
Generally speaking, the healthier the child, the more 
rebellious he is. I have already pointed out how 
cruel, how incongruous, the world seems to the child. 
He resents this bitterly, and the thoroughly wicked child 
will stick at nothing to show his resentment. A boy of 
four, when reminded by his six year old sister that he 
would be shut out from Heaven, retorted impiously, 
*' I don't care," and added, " Uncle won't go — I'll stay 
with him." Many children's lies arise from this rebellious 
spirit. A small boy of 3 years and 9 months, on receiv- 
ing from his nurse the familiar order *' Come here," at 
once replied, " I can't, nurse, I's looking for a flea," and 
pretended to be deeply engaged in hunting for this 
quarry in the blanket of his cot. A little girl of three, 
in answer to her granny's call, said, " I can't come, I's 
suckling baby" (her doll). Children are not devoid of 
tact, e.g.^ a boy who had been told it was rude to ask for 
anything at dinner, audibly muttered, " I hope somebody 
will offer me some more soup," and a little girl of 3^, 
seeing all the elders helping themselves to cake said, 
" I not asking." Some children are terrible quibblers. 



die?" When the baby began to walk and talk, the elder child 
would torment him in hundreds of naughty ways, beating him, 
dragging him out of his chair in order to take his place, shouting 
in his ears, calling him naughty and ugly, taking away his toys, 
and mimicking his way of talking and walking. — \^Pere2^ 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 335 

A boy had been unkind to his baby brother, and on his 
mother reproving him, he asked her, " Is he not my ozvn 
brother?" and on his mother admitting so incontestable 
a proposition, exclaimed triumphantly, *' Well, you said 
1 could do what I like with my own things." A child 
was scolded for pulling Kitty's ears, and replied, " I 
wasn't pulling Kitty's ears, I was only pulling one of 
her ears." An American boy of 6 began to cry because 
he was forbidden to go out and play, and was threatened 
by his mother with a whipping, whereupon he exclaimed, 
" Well, now. Mamma, that will only make me cry more." 
A small boy was placed in the charge of the baby, but 
presently was met on the stairs by his mother. 
M. — " Why have you left baby ? " 
Boy. — " Go's there's a bumble bee in the room." 
M. — " But weren't you afraid of baby being stung ? " 
Boy. — "Yes, but if I stayed, both of us might be 
stung, and you would have two to take care of instead 
of one." (Sully.) 

Children are often very punctilious, and resent any- 
thing disorderly and unseemly, just as the little girl who 
asked her Mamma if Mr. Smith was not a very wicked 
man, because he didn't " smell his hat " when he entered 
his pew in church. A small boy of two would not go to 
sleep when requested to do so by his father and mother. 
At last the father spoke angrily to him, but the infant, 
instead of being cowed, was only offended at the rude- 
ness, saying, " You s'ouldn't, s'ouldn't, Assum, you s'ould 
speak nicely." His father's name was Arthur, and he was 
evidently copying his mother. 

An American boy of four on one occasion refused to 
say his prayers, exclaiming, " Why, they're old. God 
has heard them so many times that they're old to Hira 
too, why, He knows them as well as I do myself" 



336 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Children have often been noticed to reprove themselves. 
A little girl of 20 months, on being left by her mother 
in a room, would say to herself, " Tay da." When 
crying, between each squeal she would say, " Be dood> 
baba." Having once trod on the flower bed in the 
garden, she had been scolded, and then said, " Babba 
will not be naughty adain. If 00 do dat I shall have to 
take 00 in, babba." 

Here is a pretty story told by Perez : — 

"Juliette is twenty-two months old. Her mother has 
forbidden her to touch the flowers in the window ; she is 
only allowed to water them with a child's watering pot. 
She performs this task with a zeal which is only equalled 
by her awkwardness. She has to ask her mother's per- 
mission before doing it ; the flowers would be swamped 
every day if she watered them whenever she wanted to. 
When she has been disobedient, the nurse waters them 
instead. Several times a day she is heard saying, ' Ittle 
dal dood, water fower.' The other day her mother was 
in the drawing room with some visitors, and the child 
suddenly disappeared with her toys. At the end of ten 
or twelve minutes, she reappeared, her frock and pinafore 
literally soaked with water. ' Ittle dal dood, water fower,' 
were her first words on coming into the room. One of 
the visitors, on kissing her, remarked the state she was 
in. Her mother flew into the next room, where water 
was flowing everywhere. This is what had happened ; 
as Juliette had been disobedient at table, she was for- 
bidden to water the flowers, and her little watering pot 
had been hidden. But the temptation was greater than 
her fear of being scolded for disobeying a second time. 
She had got hold of her nurse's watering pot, and turned 
on the tap to try and fill it herself; but she had only 
succeeded in producing an inundation, and deluging 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 337 

her frock. She looked so crestfallen and penitent that 
her mother's only scolding was to laugh at her. In the- 
evening she said to her father, ' Ittle dal not be dood, 
not no longer dood, cause not like water fower — not like 
be all wet' The next morning the nurse gave her back 
her watering pot, but she threw it down, saying, ' Not 
dood water pot, not dood, wet ittle dal, no more water 
fewer.' Her resolution, however, did not hold out when 
she saw the silvery shower pouring out of the nurse's 
watering pot. * Ittle dal velly dood, water fower,' said 
she, and picked up her own little pot' " 

These incidents illustrate the fertility of resource, the 
inventiveness and the respect for order of children. Let 
me here say a word as to the training of children in 
morality, bringing them up in the fear of the Lord, as 
the old Book so clearly puts it. Rugby boys used to 
say to each other of their headmaster, Dr. Arnold,, 
" You couldn't tell him a lie, because he always believed 
you." From your children always expect the right thing, 
as though the wrong thing were an utter impossibility — 
and don't be threatening punishment and asking im- 
possibilities. Try always to look at things from the 
child's side ; remember what a strange world this little 
being finds himself in. Everything seems so hard and 
difficult to him, his mother and father are his sheet 
anchor; if they forsake him whither shall he turn? 
Finally, more can be done by suggestion than by 
command ; the wise mother suggests the duty, not 
commands it. It has been shown that hypnotic sugges- 
tion can do great things in the case of adults ; the influence 
of the good mother acts in the same way. " Mother 
would like you to do this," not, " Mother says you must 
do this." Avoid direct teaching ; the best religious and 
moral teaching in my opinion is by a story which 



338 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

illustrates the truth and has no moral ostentatiously 
tacked on to it. 

Let me sum up. We have been so intent on the 
philosophy of our education that we have forgotten the 
subject of it. This little stranger is a curious mixture 
of conceit, jealousy, anger, chivalry, and love ; he has been 
thrust out into this strange unsympathetic world of ours 
where he has been seized by many hands, all anxious to 
mould him quickly to their own ideals, regardless of his 
■desires and feelings. 

Instead of recognising and utilising the diversity of 
t}'pe supplied by this throng of little strangers, we have 
hitherto been intent, so far as in us lay, to mould them 
all to the same pattern, and to consider that mould 
which most quickly fitted them for the work-a-day 
world as the most efficient — crushing by this process 
all individuality, all diversity. 

How many a bright mind has been thus smothered it 
would be hard to say, — possibly a future Faraday or a 
Watt. Yet as Huxley said, " If the nation could purchase 
•a future possible Faraday or Watt at £100,000, he would 
be dirt cheap at the money." 

Finally, let me plead for the happiness of the little 
ones ; all that we can do to brighten their lives, let us 
do it. Remember the beautiful world they live in lasts 
but a short time — the hard, logical, every-day world 
only too soon replaces it. If then fairy tales and picture 
books can afford children even only one half hour's pure 
unalloyed happiness per week, give it them by all means. 
It will be a bright star in their horizon, which as the 
gloomy clouds of the fading years roll by, occasionally 
peeps through the gloom, and, irradiates, but for a 
second, a life, it may be saddened by toil and broken by 
sufferine. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD 339 

They look up with their pale and sunken faces, 

And their looks are sad to see, 
For the man's hoary anguish draws and presses, 

Down the cheeks of infancy ; 
^' Your old earth," they say, "is very dreary. 

Our young feet," they say, "are very weak. 
Few paces have we taken yet are weary — 

Our grave-rest is very far to seek ; 
Ask the aged why they weep, and not the children. 

For the outside earth is cold, 
And we young ones stand without, in our bewildering, 

And the graves are for the old." 

KOTE. — My indebtedness to the following is obvious — 

1. "Studies of Childhood" by Sully. 

2. " First three years of Childhood" by Perez. 

3. "Child Study" in Commissionei-'s Report, U.S.A., for 

1892-3. Vol. I. 



"THE OLD AND THE NEW 
EDUCATION." 

Ni fedrent gyfrif fawr, ac ni fedrent ddarllen dim, na thorri eit 
henwau, na thynnu Hun. Ond yr oeddynt yn abnabod llais pob^ 
aderyn, gwyddent envv pob blodeuyn, yr oeddynt yn hoff o'u gilydd 
ac yr oeddynt wedi dysgu dweyd y gwir. — 0. M. Edwards. 

This is an optimistic age. The eloquence of the 
scientific seer has fallen upon us. We listen with 
unctuous complacency to his words as he tells us that 
this is the age towards which all creation has moved, 
and that this great upward march of humanity has 
culminated in us — you and me — the last triumphs of 
Nature ! Whatever exists must be good : for it has 
^'survived!' Its existence has justified its appearance. 
And so we sum up our assets in the balance of life and 
find that we are thoroughly solvent. Automatically we 
frown at the pessimist who comes along and shakes his 
head and dolefully insinuates that physically, at any 
rate, we are fast degenerating. " Your schools," says the 
pessimist, " are sapping rapidly the physical vitality of 
the race. Look at the physical sterility of your thinkers 
and the stunted forms of your city school-children ! 
Cities themselves can and do kill a family in three 
generations ; with the schools they will do it in two." I 
do not intend worrying you, my dear reader, with a 
general criticism of modern life ; but I do want you ta 



THE OLD AND THE NEW EDUCATION 34I 

Spend a short time with me comparing education or 
training in the olden days with the training of to-day, 
more particularly the training of our little ones. 

We are told that these Welsh children of long ago 
knew the voice of every bird and the name of every 
flower. They were trained to love each other and the 
truth. Can as much be said of our modern training — a 
<:ouple of thousand years later? Some of us think that 
we have been in this respect progressing backwards ! 

How many of our schools teach children to know the 
songs of the birds and the names of the flowers? It is 
true that " object lessons " are given ostensibly for this 
purpose amongst others ; but some of us know how 
<3ften the spirit of Pestalozzi flies from these displays, 
affrighted at the unforeseen developments of his bene- 
ficent endeavours. As for teaching our tiny ones the 
Golden Rule and to love the truth, our time is so full of 
controversy as to catechisms, religious instruction, etc.^ 
that there is left but scant opportunity to cultivate the 
moral side of the child. Our religious difficulty (even 
though it be but the creation of a disordered imagination) 
has stifled moral culture, and the teacher is so hemmed 
in by sectarian jealousies that he dare not speak with 
unfettered mind to the child of these things which are 
so essential to right living. 

W^e have taken from the trainer his most efficient tool 
for character-building — namely, the moral basis of a 
sound curriculum. Not catechisms, so much as sound 
morals, are needed. Surely the teacher is in loco parentis, 
and, if you give him your child to train, then trust him all 
in all. Let us not limit the teacher's endeavour to the 
training of mechanical dexterity in the manipulation of 
figures. The school should be not merely a place for 
the acquiring of certain more or less useful arts ; but it 



342 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

is a shop in which characters are chiselled out — not by 
the teacher, remember, but really by the child himself 
An educational system which ignores moral cultlire is 
worse than useless — it is fatal to high ideal and fine 
character. A school which does not lay greater emphasis 
on " right living " than on " right thinking " cumbereth 
the ground. And the foundation of this " right living," 
this only satisfactory system of training, is an intimate 
knowledge and love of Nature. Perfect life is life in 
harmony with its environment — i.e.. Nature. All imper- 
fection of character is a discordance — a lack of harmony 
between man and Nature. And remember that many, 
if not most, of these discordances or imperfections are 
due to ignorance of Nature. 

Ignorance, rather than being an excuse, is a crime in 
the eyes of Nature. Hence our fathers found by sad 
experience (that best of teachers) how necessary it was 
for them to know Nature in her diversity, and so their 
system of training arose. 

Where are we ? Our system of training is not suffi- 
ciently natural ; it is too artificial — so much so that, 
perhaps, much of the disease and unhappiness in all 
forms to-day is due to this system itself, which is a relic 
of that mediaeval scholasticism that deified the word and 
degraded the thing. The handiness of old-world man- 
hood, the instinctive resourcefulness of old-world mother- 
hood, the bright gladsomeness of old-world youth, and 
the curiosity and inquisitiveness of old-world childhood 
have all disappeared, leaving in their place but the 
precocious gamin with his face full of weariness and his 
mind lacking altogether the sprightly vivacity of old- 
time children. Words, words, filling the heads of the 
little ones with clattering cymbals instead of with real 
thoughts, real ideas. The children are as visitors to 



THE OLD AND THE NEW EDUCATION 345 

Ghostland, wandering amid intangible shadows and 
hollow noises. By their dulled eyes, their weary voices, 
one sees how they long for the grasp of some kindly 
hand that will lead them out of this immaterial phantas- 
magoria, out into the world of things. 

We must hark back again to Nature. Despite the 
preaching of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel, we are 
in some respects as far away from a natural system of 
training as ever. Let us return to our fathers' ideals. 
We must lead our little ones out into the fields ; we 
must wander with them up hill and down dale, by 
rushing rivulet and receding tide. Our hill-sides shall 
be our class-rooms sometimes ; there we will train them 
to know and to love every flower that blooms and every 
wind that blows ; they shall watch the fleecy cloud 
scudding across the sky, and the timid hare and wily 
fox shall be friends who will tell them tales of Nature- 
wisdom. So shall our children come to see the beautiful, 
the good, and the true — that triune aspect of an eternal 
one-ness. The voice of the birds shall be more than 
music to them — it shall be an inspiration to better things. 
They shall know, and so love, their land ; out under the 
blue sky we will tell them stories of how the good Lady 
of Snowdon lived and Llywelyn died ; poems of Ceiriog 
and Islwyn shall we give them, as dear treasures of the 
mind ; songs, too, rich and melodious as the babbling of 
mountain streams shall be theirs ; all that our land can 
give our children — its children — let it give. Do not let 
our children imagine that their land has nothing to give 
them ; what it cannot give, nought else can. We will 
show them how the plant that does not send its rootlets 
deep down into the earth is torn away by the first gust 
of wind ; whilst its neighbour, with its roots reaching 
deep into the soil, stands gently swaying to the winds of 



344 SCHOOLS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

heaven. Instead of repeating "twice two are four," they 
shall count for us the petals of the primrose or the rays 
•of the starfish. 

Instead of bothering their little minds with the horrors 
of an artificial alphabet, we will show them all things 
that are beautiful around them and tell them the name 
of each ; then, perhaps, some day we will tell them of 
deeds that were good and noble, and so they will come 
to recognise and to know, and, perchance, to do them. 
And as for other things, we will teach them to know the 
different shapes of leaves and different colours of birds ; 
and they shall draw these forms in the sand of the sea- 
shore or playground, and, perhaps, later on, with pencil 
and crayon. 

Let us, finally, give up the idea of a standard coinage 
in education ; Nature refuses definitely to allow her 
diversity to be obliterated by any system, however 
mechanical. Let us, further, give up the idea that our 
children are grown-up folk ; we then shall see how 
foolish it is to talk to them in the language and thought 
of adults — to expect them to recognise religious truths 
and dogmas which even adults, to judge by their actions, 
have not yet been able to appreciate to the full. 



The End. 



W. JoLLV & Sons, Printers, Bkidge Stkeet, Aberdeen. 



APR SO 1902 



